Intense Interest in New Book Series by Best-selling Author Graham Taylor

The Dopple Ganger Chronicles is the upcoming new series by New York Times Bestselling author G.P. Taylor. According to the author, the first of the series will begin releasing in early September, ready for the kids going back to school. To be published by Tyndale House Publishers, Book One: The Fire Escape introduces identical twins Sadie and Saskia Dopple and their friend, former thief Erik Ganger. What begins as a normal day for these three orphans at the Dunstan’s School for Wayward Children – food fights, rioting classmates and fires – turns ominous when a mysterious wealthy woman appears and decides to adopt Saskia, but not Sadie. At her new home – a mansion full of secrets – Saskia stumbles upon a mystery that threatens her very life. Meanwhile Erik and Sadie escape from the orphanage one step ahead of their enemies. Faced with madmen, wild dogs, treasure hunters, and an otherworldly visitor, the threesome must decide who to trust and what to believe if they are to survive.

Taylor developed The Dopple Ganger Chronicles into what he dubs illustronovellas; a mix between an illustrated novel, graphic novel, and textual novel, due to his concern for the lack of reading abilities in school children.

“I visit about 250 schools every year,” Taylor explains, “to do a creative writing workshop for free. I start by asking, ‘How many of you read books? How many of you bought Harry Potter books?" They all put their hands up. Then I ask, ‘How many of you have read Harry Potter?’ and most of the hands go down. This was going on and on every where I went, so I thought I really need to design something that gets kids reading books.

“In Japan, they start their children off on manga and the young manga have no text. Then they introduce a bit of text and as the age group grows, they continue to introduce more text. That is why they’ve got such a high reading group in Japan. I think it’s the way forward; we’re living in an age that is very visually stimulating, with the internet and television and things like that. Yet books are books, and I wanted to capture that generation that wasn’t reading and that’s why we have to have that balance of text and pictures and illustrations and even the words themselves being part of the illustrations. It’s something to get kids into the idea that they are looking at something other than a book. Books are linked with hard work - it’s the association – and television and computers are linked with fun.

"I wrote The Dopple Ganger Chronicles and had it printed before we had a book deal and took it to the schools." While he was hoping to stimulate reading among the students, Taylor was quite surprised by a phone call he received from the mother of a dyslexic child, who had heard him speak. He asked the mother to write him; the following is her email to Taylor:

Hannah has severe dyslexia that was recognized when she was aged 6, as expected Hannah finds reading and writing a challenge and is generally reluctant to read books at all. However following your visit to her school, when you kindly gave each child “The Dopple Ganger Chronicles”, Hannah grasped this book proceeded to read it cover to cover then re-wrote the final chapter with her own ending. Astonished teachers asked Hannah to read the final paragraphs in the “Sharing Assembly” where parents and carers join the school for the end of week assembly. It was a moving experience for us as parents.

Since then Hannah has developed her reading and writing skills to such a point where she no longer needs extra support in these lessons, she is a member of the library and is no longer frightened of using the computer to find out more information about her favourite subjects, Egyptians, archaeology and Dr Who!!

“I was over the moon that a book should actually help with a dyslexic child to get to reading,” Taylor exudes. “It’s fantastic! It made it all worthwhile.”

At this point there are six books in the series with a possible twelve or thirteen total, releasing one or two a year. One of the main thrusts of the campaign (for the series) is that Taylor will be coming to the United States and doing creative workshops in schools like the ones he does in England.

Another surprise for Taylor was the intense interest from film companies in his new series. Shadowmancer went to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list before there was any interest in the book as a film; but not with The Dopple Ganger Chronicles. “As soon as the press release went out - and information was leaking through like a sieve from everywhere - I was having emails direct from film producers, who were asking, ‘Is your book called The Dopple Ganger Chronicles and if so, can I read it?’ I was saying, ‘Hang on a minute. The book isn’t even out; you don’t know what it’s like.’" Graham has been approached by eight film companies worldwide, wanting to get their hands on the rights to this book.. "This says to me that there is something about this project that is going to be very commercial. When you get members of the press contacting you six months before the book comes out that is worrisome," he laughs, "I call myself the 'worried author in England.'”

Taylor surmises this interest in his works is due to the film success of another English children’s author. “I was talking to some kids at a school and this guy shows up in a very old tweed suit. He sat at the back of the room and looked very musingly at me all the way through [my presentation.] I thought, What’s going on here? Is he one of the teachers or what? He turned out to be an Oxford don. He said, 'I’ve heard all about you. We think you’re the new C.S. Lewis.' I thought, Poor old one! (laughs). Then he went off and wrote a thesis about G.P. Taylor being the new C.S. Lewis; when that went out, that was it.”

For more information about G.P. Taylor and The Dopple Ganger Chronicles, visit