Joshua Doder Books in Order

Joshua Doder is the pen name used by British children's writer Josh Lacey for the Grk books. Lacey was born in London in 1968, grew up there, and has said he has lived in the city all his life. The Doder name is most closely linked with Grk, a run of quick, funny adventures about a boy and an unusually determined dog.

Books were there from the start. As a child, Lacey loved getting lost in imagined worlds, from Narnia to the jungle journeys of Tintin, and he reread favorites such as Danny the Champion of the World, Tintin in Tibet, and SOS Bobomobile. That early appetite for peril, jokes, and faraway places feels right at home in his later work.

Before writing his first novel, Lacey worked as a journalist, a teacher, and a screenwriter. Those are very different jobs, but all involve paying attention to how people speak and how a story moves. His early nonfiction included the time-traveller guides to old London, published under Joshua Doder.

Then came a dog.

In A Dog Called Grk, Tim Malt takes in a stray and tries to find its owners. The sensible plan gets him mixed up in an international rescue, a dictatorship, and the dangerous Colonel Zinfandel. The book introduced Grk, Tim, Max, and Natascha, then led to seven more adventures set in places including Brazil, New York, the Seychelles, India, Paris, Australia, and Italy. The stories are built for readers who like clear stakes, short chapters, and children who have to think fast when the adults cannot fix things.

As Josh Lacey, he has written in several different modes. The Dragonsitter follows Eddie, who is left to look after his uncle Morton's dragon, Ziggy, with predictably smoky results. Its email format keeps the jokes moving, and the series became a big part of his work for newer independent readers. He has also written the Tom Trelawney adventures, including The Island of Thieves and The Sultan's Tigers, which send a young hero into historical action.

History remains one of his recurring interests. Bearkeeper takes Pip through the rough streets of Shakespeare's London, where a search for family becomes bound up with the Globe Theatre and a fighting bear. Lacey also wrote God is Brazilian, an adult biography of Charles Miller, the man who brought football to Brazil. He knows how to make a real place and period feel busy, immediate, and full of trouble.

His more recent books show how wide that range can be. Hope Jones Saves the World follows a ten-year-old who decides to cut down on plastic and push her local supermarket to change. The Pet Potato, a picture book illustrated by Momoko Abe, takes a much sillier route. His Time Travel Twins books move through periods including the Viking, Anglo-Saxon, Roman, Stone Age, and Maya worlds.

The common thread is simple: young people spot a problem and refuse to stand still. Lacey's characters may be dealing with dragons, criminals, history, or household waste, but they tend to meet the challenge with nerve and a good joke. Away from writing, he enjoys long walks with his dog, which feels like a fitting detail for the author behind Grk.