Dubai: How does a school failure end up returning to Dubai as a famous author? Briton Peter J. Murray, a former Dubai resident, has done just that.
Murray failed the 11+ mandatory exam. He went to work in the steelworks after finishing school with no qualifications and wasn't expected to make anything of his life by his parents.
Growing up in Sheffield, northern England, Murray followed in his father and grandfather's footsteps to the steelworks in the days before health and safety regulations really existed.
Once, he ran for his life when a vat of molten metal spilled onto the floor. The red-hot metal burned away his shoes completely and started to bite at his feet. People around him lost digits, their sight and sometimes their lives.
He decided that enough was enough and that he wasn't going to live the dangerous life of a factory worker any longer.
Taking himself to night school once a week at the age of 18, he graduated 10 years later with a degree in metallurgy. He discovered that he loved to teach (having dabbled in it a little) and finally became a maths teacher which, he admits, was his worst subject at school.
Teaching employees
Having a background in aluminium stood him in good stead when he saw a job advertised at Dubal in 1985 teaching employees maths, which he accepted.
"We lived in a villa in Jebel Ali, there were 100 villas on the beach called the ‘white villas' and that's all there was!," he said from his accommodation in Jumeirah.
"My wife Kath drove up to Jumeirah on a sandy tarmac road to JESS [Jumeirah English Speaking School] where my sons went to school, and then it was sand and track to Deira. There wasn't much in between!" he said.
After what he describes as "three wonderful years" in Dubai, the family left to return to England in 1987.
However, the story doesn't end there. After visiting his 21-year-old niece, he was reminded of a story he used to tell them as children, involving a character called "Mokee Joe". He used to dress up in a big rain coat and hat and scare them with stories when his two sons and niece were young. Seeing as she had remembered the story so vividly, "I thought I'd better write the story down," he said.
And so the Mokee Joe series was born. Getting published wasn't so easy though — and he faced the dreaded rejection letters that so many authors receive.
He didn't give up, and decided to do it by himself, contacting a friend who was in television and receiving an endorsement from a young actor in the British children's show "Grange Hill".
The books were self-published in 2005, with Peter's son Simon doing the illustrations, and sold 12,000 copies.
Major chain
It was even sold in major book chain Waterstones, while it was still self-published.
"Then all the publishers who had rejected got on the phone," he said, after which he signed with a major company. After some time, however, he bought back his copyright and returned to being self-published, for love of the work.
His classroom readings became increasingly more theatrical and are still something that the schoolchildren love.
Now most of the family (including wife Kath) are revisiting Dubai on a tour of schools, exciting children with the scary stories of Mokee Joe and his child characters Hudson, Molly and Ash.
Simon is an author in his own right, having created the "Icky Doo Dah" character for younger children. He is travelling with his dad and illustrates live during his presentations to children.
It's a special visit for Simon, because he's a former pupil of JESS, where he gave a presentation on Monday. "Some of the smells of the flowers and blossoms are the same and I remember them. I couldn't remember which classroom I had been in, but suddenly during one of my sessions I realised that I was in my old classroom," Simon said, "It was amazing". While a lot of the building has been modernised he said, the layout is the same.
"The younger children were entranced by Simon Murray's gentle manner and enthusiasm for art and drawing, and he inspired some amazing drawings of his character Icky Doo Dah. Peter Murray enthralled the older ones and had them on the edge of their seats, hardly daring to peek between their fingers as he plucked them from the audience to help bring to life his Mokee Joe stories," Yvette Judge, Senior Librarian, JESS Arabian Ranches, said.
Children's reaction
"These two authors have a magically winning way with young readers, and it is thrilling to listen to the children excitedly talking about the presentations they have seen and devouring the books," Judge said.
Peter and Kath Murray are now both 59. While they say they should be slowing down at their time of life, they're enjoying their time with the books too much.
"What keeps us young and keeps us going is the kids. Going into the school and the reaction of the children, and their excitement and the buzz, we never tire of that," Peter said. One of the things that the Murrays are most proud of, is that their books encourage children to use their imaginations in the old-fashioned way; rather than having modern technology provide images for them.
"It's so weird, who would have dreamed in 1985 when I was working in Dubal… that we would come back one day and sit here now in the situation we're in, it's amazing," Peter said.
"You never know what's round the corner — you never know what's going to happen."
Titles published
Peter J. Murray currently has seven titles published. There is a Mokee Joe trilogy: Mokee Joe is Coming, Mokee Joe Recharged, and Mokee Joe The Doomsday Trail. Bonebreaker is the second trilogy he wrote: Bonebreaker, Dawn Demons and Moonwailer. His seventh book is Scabbajack.
Simon Murray has published four Icky Doo Dah books: Icky Doo Dah, Icky Doo Dah The Royal Bling Thing, Icky Doo Dah The Fairground Fiasco; and Icky Doo Dah The Christmas Hoo Hah.
