Here's the USA and CANADA version of my Murderous Maths Sudoku book which has sold well over 1/2 a million copies!

All the books in the Murderous Maths series feature a range of characters including One-Finger Jimmy, Half Smile and their gang, Professor Fiendish, Pongo McWhiffy and the terribly lovely Veronica Gumfloss, the evil Gollarks from the planet Zog, Urgum the Axeman and so on. They also include sneaky tricks, games, jokes (most of which are repeatable) and what's more - you'll find yourself picking up all sorts of advice and tips on how to cope with maths in all it's various forms. Despite their irreverent and frivolous attitude, these books have even found their way into schools and proved to be a boost to GCSE studies. A great point of personal pride are the foreign editions which already include German, Spanish, Polish, Greek, Dutch, Norwegian, Turkish, Croatian, Italian, Lithuanian, Korean, Danish, Portugese, Hungarian, Hebrew, Thai and others...

MURDEROUS MATHS (the original book) deals with a mixture of quirky items ranging from magic squares to card tricks, and it also has a section of some of the bizarre ( and often quite nasty) maths geniuses of the world. It also covers time, short cuts, massive numbers, symmetry and how the invention of nothing made our number system possible!

Order a copy of "Murderous Maths"

MORE MURDEROUS MATHS is another mixture which explains things like "How to be famous for ever", "One sided paper" and "Who can see you STARK NAKED as you read this book?" You also learn how mirror numbers can make a teacher's head explode, about dimensions, dominoes, speed and why Pythagoras had somebody murdered!


Order a copy of "More Murderous Maths"

For full details of these and all the other books in the Murderous Maths series, please visit THE MURDEROUS MATHS BOOK PAGE

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Other books:

THE PUZZLE BOOKS have their own page. If you like maths, logic and intelligence problems, then do have a look!

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How I became an author and other stuff I do

A lot of people have been kind enough to contact me and show an interest in what I do, and here is a summary of the answers to some of the questions I get asked.

Where do I live/work? I was born and now live in Yorkshire, but over the years I've been all over the place which has given me a very odd accent. Luckily you can't hear it if you're reading my books. I have a room in the top of my house where I sit typing away surrounded by old computers (which I can't work very well) computer games, flashing lights, inflatable fish, keyboards, squirty flowers, a fruit machine, magic tricks and my collection of 1,500 BEANOs.

When/why did I start writing? Do I like it? I always wanted to be a performer, and at Durham university when I was about 18 I started writing lots of plays and songs. I then wrote little jokes and other stuff for the telly, and then in about 1990 I was asked to write some puzzle books, and now I mainly write the Murderous Maths books. It's not a bad way to make a living because you can stay at home, you can wear your old smelly clothes all day, and when a new book comes out you can give a copy to your granny and she's pleased to bits.

Why maths and puzzle books? Because that's what I like and what I know about. With a subject like history things are often a bit vague such as "Why did Henry VIII have a big party with his enemies the French at The Field of the Cloth of Gold?" That stuff gets very frustrating but with maths things are certain, e.g. 1 + 2 = 3. I like that. I was also lucky to have some very good maths teachers at school who made it easy to understand and fun to do.

Where do I get ideas from? That's a tough one! It depends on what I'm writing. With the maths books, because I know what I have to write about (i.e. maths), it's not too hard, I just have to think up a funny way of doing it. Puzzles are harder, but the fun bit is that to get ideas I need to get out - so I walk the dog or go to the pub or have a long bath or play computer games until I think of something. Quite often the best ideas suddenly occur to me in the middle of nowhere and get written on the back of my hand.

How long does it take to write a book? My books are about 30,000 words long (this includes lots of instructions for the illustrators which you don't get to see) and when I'm writing the first draft I like to try and do 2,000 words a day. However I have a lot of days when I'm away doing shows or author visits, or I'm producing music or writing other stuff, and then there's a lot of checking to do when the pictures turn up. Altogether I spend about about 50 days on a book, although the time between me starting the first page and it coming out is often more than a year!

Have I ever wanted to give up? No I haven't, but I'm very lucky. As well as writing books and shows, I do a lot of music (if you know the old BBC TV programmes SMART or SMART ON THE ROAD - I made the theme music for that on my computers), I also go out and perform to all sorts of audiences, I invent telly programmes and I invent games and puzzles. Everything I do is fun, and if I get bored of one thing I go and do another!

What books have I written? Quite a lot by now! All the books listed further up this page, also the puzzle books and the plays, then there's about 8 BBC TV "Megamaths" books, 4 "Rosie and Jim" annuals, 3 cartoon books, books on secret codes and practical jokes, 2 BBC "Dynamo books". Incidentally, my personal favourite book is probably "Dead Famous: Isaac Newton and his Apple" (Use these links for details on the KILLER PUZZLES, the WARPMAZE, the MAGIC OF PANTS and the SHOWS page which has music demos you can hear.)

What do I read? I enjoy checking through maths and puzzle books (if they're good), but mainly I like to read anything funny and the funniest book in the world is "Molesworth" by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Seale. It features a snotty schoolboy "Nigel Molesworth" telling all about the nutty kids and mad teachers at "St Custards". There are so many ace characters and hilarious situations that I found it funny when I was 8 and I still find new jokes almost 40 years later.

What music do I like? I'm a real sucker for anything from the 1920's or 1930's. If a song has the words "vo-dee-oh-doh" then it can't go wrong for me. My favourite band are called The Casablanca Steps who are just brilliant at playing this stuff. However, oddly enough, when I'm planning out mazes or drawing technical stuff I switch to Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin or to my all time rock heros The Sensational Alex Harvey Band.

Why do I write for children? I don't. I write what interests and amuses me and luckily it appeals to lots of other people too, not just children but also adults. The nice thing about having your books published by a children's book firm is that they put more effort in to getting good illustrators and making everything jolly. If my books were supposedly just for "adults", then they wouldn't have the cartoon strips and other mad things.

Thanks for being interested and do feel free to e-mail me using the "Contact Kjartan" link at the bottom of the screen, or the link on the start page.