Geoffry Morgan Pike (who wrote as Geoff Pike and Pai Kit Fai) was an English-born, naturalized Australian writer and cartoonist.

Early years

Geoffry Morgan Pike was born in

Tottenham, Middlesex Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Walthamst ...

on 17 October 1929, to parents Mildred 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, Pike 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 ''Beetle Bailey'' is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Mort Walker, published since September 4, 1950. It is set on a fictional United States Army post. In the years just before Walker's death in 2018 (at age 94), it was among the old ...

'' and ''

Krazy Kat ''Krazy Kat'' (also known as ''Krazy & Ignatz'' in some reprints and compilations) is an American newspaper comic strip, by cartoonist George Herriman, which ran from 1913 to 1944. It first appeared in the ''New York Evening Journal'', whose owne ...

'' with American

Paramount Studios Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production and distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldes ...

. '' Unbearable Bear in T.V. Tours'', an animated cartoon series for Artransa Park Television, featured a globe trotting

koala The koala or, inaccurately, koala bear (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae and its closest living relatives are the ...

with itchy feet. Pike worked with

Bryce Courtenay Arthur Bryce Courtenay, (14 August 1933 – 22 November 2012) was a South African-Australian advertising director and novelist. He is one of Australia's best-selling authors, notable for his book '' The Power of One''. Background and early ye ...

McCann Erickson McCann, formerly McCann Erickson, is an American global advertising agency network, with offices in 120 countries. McCann is part of McCann Worldgroup, along with several other agencies, including direct digital marketing agency MRM//McCann, expe ...

advertising agency, most notably on the Mortein advertisement, " Louie the Fly". Bryce wrote the jingle and Geoff created the cartoon and animation. He also created the animation for the McWilliams' monk advertisement and the popular

Yowie Yowie is one of several names for an Australian folklore entity that is reputed to live in the Outback. The creature has its roots in Aboriginal oral history. In parts of Queensland, they are known as ''quinkin'' (or as a type of quinkin), a ...

characters featured in children's picture books and

Cadbury's Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company fully owned by Mondelez International (originally Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second largest confectionery brand in the world after Mar ...

line of confectionery containing small plastic toys. In 1977 Pike was diagnosed with throat cancer and learned the art of

Chi Kung ''Qigong'' (), ''qi gong'', ''chi kung'', ''chi 'ung'', or ''chi gung'' () is a system of coordinated body-posture and movement, breathing, and meditation used for the purposes of health, spirituality, and martial-arts training. With roots in ...

(also known as Qigong) 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. He passed in March 2018 after many years of ill health.

Writing

In 1974 he published the first of many books, '' Henry Golightly: a novel of the sea''. Published by

Angus and Robertson Angus & Robertson (A&R) is a major Australian bookseller, publisher and printer. As book publishers, A&R has contributed substantially to the promotion and development of Australian literature.Alison, Jennifer (2001). "Publishers and editors: A ...

, it was the story of a

Gweilo ''Gweilo'' or (, pronounced ) is a common Cantonese slang term for Western world, Westerners. In the absence of modifiers, it refers to white people and has a history of racially deprecatory and pejorative use. Cantonese speakers frequently u ...

(caucasian foreigner) living in

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

and building a boat amongst the locals; a youthful search for adventure and love among the post-war wreckage of 1945 and the horror that was Hiroshima. Pike also wrote under the name Pai Kit Fai, which was given to him by his Chinese in-laws. Loosely translated, it means "White Person of Letters and Grand Ambition'. He wrote two books under this

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

, '' The Concubine's Daughter'' and '' Red Lotus''.

Bibliography

Fiction: *'' Red Lotus'' (2010 – pseudonym – Pai Kit Fai) *'' The Concubine’s Daughter'' (2009 – pseudonym – Pai Kit Fai) *''

Tiger dawn The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on un ...

'' (1997) *''

The Second Sunrise ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in En ...

'' (1995) *''

Golightly Outback Golightly is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Holly Golightly (singer) (born 1966), British singer-songwriter *Gage Golightly (born 1993), American actress *Holly Golightly (comics) (born 1964), comic book writer and artist *Joh ...

'' (1978) *'' Golightly Adrift'' (1976) *'' Henry Golightly: a novel of the sea'' (1974) Non Fiction: *'' Ch’i: The Power Within.'' (1985) *'' Ch’i:The Power is You'' (1985) *'' Youth and Beauty Secrets of the Orient'' (1982) *'' The Power of Ch’i'' (1980) Animated scripts: *'' Princess Serena and the Magic Crystal'' *'' Unbearable Bear in T.V. Tours'', 13 episodes Children’s books, 1995–2001: *'' Rumble the redgum Yowie'' *'' Crag the mangrove Yowie'' *'' Boof the bottlebrush Yowie'' *'' Ditty the lillipilli Yowie'' *'' Squish the fiddlewood Yowie'' *'' Nap the honeygum Yowie'' Children’s books, 1964: ''Around the world with Unbearable Bear'' series (adapted by Laurie Sharpe): *'' Unbearable Bear in Boy Meets Bear'' *'' Unbearable Bear in London'' *'' Unbearable Bear in Ireland'' *'' Unbearable bear in Scotland''Geoff Pike, ''Unbearable Bear in Scotland'' (Sungravure 1964)

Awards and honours

*''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

' Book of the Week: ''Red Lotus'' * A&R Writer's Fellowship

External links

Geoff Pike's Alibris pageGeoff Pike's official site
* ttp://us.macmillan.com/author/paikitfai Macmillan USA Author page on Geoff Pike aka Pai Kit Fai

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pike, Geoffry Morgan 1929 births 2018 deaths British advertising executives Australian animated film directors Australian male novelists British Book Award winners Australian copywriters People from New South Wales Naturalised citizens of Australia Australian cartoonists People from Tottenham