Geoffrey Jenkins

Geoffrey Ernest Jenkins (16 June 1920 – 7 November 2001) was a South African journalist, novelist and screenwriter. His wife Eve Palmer, with whom he collaborated on several works, wrote numerous non-fiction works about Southern Africa.

Jenkins was either born in Port Elizabeth South Africa or Pretoria to Ernest Jenkins, an editor, and Daisy Jenkins. At age 17, he wrote and had published A Century of History, which received a special eulogy from General Jan Smuts at the Potchefstroom centenary celebrations. Smuts also wrote the book's introduction.

Jenkins subsequently won the Lord Kemsley Commonwealth Journalistic Scholarship, which took him to Fleet Street, where he spent World War II as a war correspondent.

While working for the Sunday Times, he became friends with author Ian Fleming, creator of the British secret agent James Bond. Fleming later praised Jenkins' writing, saying "Geoffrey Jenkins has the supreme gift of originality... A Twist of Sand is a literate, imaginative first novel in the tradition of high and original adventure".

After the war Jenkins settled in Rhodesia, where he met his wife, author Eve Palmer (1916–1998). They married on 17 March 1950. They had a son named David (born c. 1953).

Jenkins was briefly editor of the newspaper The Umtali Advertiser then became a reporter at The Star newspaper in Johannesburg.

While working for The Star, he wrote his first novel, A Twist of Sand (1959), which was subsequently translated into 23 languages and became a motion picture in 1968 starring Richard Johnson and Honor Blackman. He kept his newspaper job until he had published his third novel.

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