Geoffry Morgan Pike
Encyclopedia
Background and early years
Geoffrey Morgan Pike (also known as Geoff Pike) is a British-born, naturalized Australian writer and cartoonist. He was born in in TottenhamTottenham
Tottenham is an area of the London Borough of Haringey, England, situated north north east of Charing Cross.-Toponymy:Tottenham is believed to have been named after Tota, a farmer, whose hamlet was mentioned in the Domesday Book; hence Tota's hamlet became Tottenham...
Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
, England on 17 October 1929. His parents are Mildred (Mim) and Robert Pike. He has two siblings, Anthony J. Pike and Peter Robert Pike.
At age 14 he entered training on the Navy ship Indefatigable, and went to sea in 1945 aged 15.
In 1949 he emigrated to Australia where he worked in the outback breaking horses, felling trees and sailing aboard deep-sea trawlers before he signed on as an artistic director on many popular cartoons such as Beetle Bailey and Krazy Kat with American Paramount Studios.
Geoff worked with Bryce Courtenay
Bryce Courtenay
Arthur Bryce Courtenay AM is a South-African-born naturalized Australian novelist and one of Australia's most commercially successful authors.-Background and early years:...
at McCann Erickson
McCann Erickson
McCann Erickson is a global advertising agency network, with offices in more than 130 countries. McCann is a subsidiary of the Interpublic Group of Companies, one of the four large holding companies in the advertising industry....
advertising agency, most notably on the Mortein
Mortein
Mortein is an Australian brand of household insecticide. Together with its sister product Aerogard, a popular insect repellent, Mortein has become something of a household name in Australia, owing much in this regard to its cartoon antagonist, Louie the Fly. Louie was drawn and animated by Geoffry...
advertisement, "Louie the Fly". Bryce wrote the jingle and Geoff created the cartoon and animation. He also created the animation for the McWilliams
McWilliams
McWilliams is a surname that refers to:*Alfred McWilliams , Canadian politician from Prince Edward Island*Bill McWilliams , American professional baseball player...
Monk advertisement.
In 1977 Geoff was diagnosed with throat cancer and learned the art of Chi Kung (also known as Quigong) and traditional Oriental medicine rather than surgery, beating cancer and becoming a master of Chi Kung and creating books and videos teaching others the philosophy and practice of aligning breath, physical activity and awareness for mental, spiritual and corporeal health.
Writing
In 1974 he published the first of many books, Henry Golightly, a story of the sea. Published by Angus and Robertson, it was the story of a GweiloGweilo
Gweilo or Gwailo is a common Cantonese slang term for foreigners, and has a long history of racially deprecatory use. If there is some racially deprecatory meaning or it is expressive of hate, it is shown by the addition of the adjective, sei or as a prefix: seigwailo...
(caucasian foreigner) living in Macau
Macau
Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
and building a boat amongst the locals.
"Henry Golightly inherited his old man's rebel soul and roving Romany heart. This is the story of a youthful search for adventure and love among the post-war wreckage of 1945. The journey leads from the spring sunshine of an English river to the shock that was Hiroshima
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
."1 (Alibris entry)
Now he writes under the name Pai Kit Fai which was given to him by his Chinese in-laws which loosely translated means 'White Person of Letters and Grand Ambition'. He has written two books under this nom de plume, The Concubine's Daughter and Red Lotus.
Awards and honours
- The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
book of the week Red Lotus - A&R Writer's Fellowship