About Us
Geoff and Janet Benge
Meet Geoff
I was born and raised in the countryside just outside New Zealand’s capital Wellington. In primary (elementary) school I was not the fastest learner and spent several years in the remedial reading group struggling to improve my comprehension and basic reading skills. I eventually succeeded and went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and philosophy from Waikato University in New Zealand.
As a young boy I loved it when my father read stories to me at bedtime. Despite his uninflected monotonal voice, these stories carried me away to the wilds of Africa and Asia and across the Pacific Ocean that surrounded our country. The heroic action of a story playing out in some exotic location would lull me into restful slumber. While I loved hearing such stories read to me, given my remedial reading background, I never imagined ever writing them myself.
I like to say, “writing found me!” And from the time it did I have never looked back. I’ve spent the past forty years earning a living as a writer. Most of that time my wife Janet and I have worked together as a team writing more than 300 books. For the first twelve years of our writing career, we worked as a ghostwriters producing books for other people before switching to writing the various Heroes book series we are now known for.
Janet and I were privileged to learn the craft of writing from another husband and wife writing team, John and Elizabeth Sherrill, authors of The Cross and the Switchblade, The Hiding Place, God Smuggler, and many other classic Christian books. Of course, it also helped that we both, despite my slow beginning, had an aptitude for writing.
More than anything else, when I write, I love to tell a good story in a way that keeps readers turning the pages. That’s why the Heroes book series are so much fun to write. And while I like to see the books we write in print and people reading them, I derive the most enjoyment from the process of structuring and writing each volume. Whenever Janet and I write one of these books we are guided by three simple principles; we want to Entertain, Inform, and Inspire our readers.
I also like instructing both high school students and adults in the art of telling compelling stories, especially true stories such as those found in the Heroes series.
Meet Janet
My husband Geoff and I started our writing journey together over forty years ago, sharing a single manual typewriter between us—and a lot of faith. Even so, we never imagining our book series would impact so many people around the world. Our mission with the books is to illuminate the lives of amazing people past and present in order to Entertain, Inform, and above all Inspire our readers.
I have loved books for as long as I can remember. One of my favorite childhood memories is of my dad and I going to the Public Library in my hometown of Hamilton, New Zealand, on Friday nights to check out new books. I also loved it when my teachers read books aloud to my class throughout elementary and middle school. Despite my love of books, I struggled with reading and spelling. Later I learned I was dyslexic, which explained a lot of my childhood frustrations.
After high school I attended Hamilton Training College and became an elementary school teacher specializing in reading. Following our marriage, Geoff and I we set out on a life-adventure together. We joined Youth With A Mission (YWAM), an interdenominational missionary organization in 1983 and what a wild ride it was—we lived on an Indian Reservation in the United States, a village in the Kingdom of Tonga in a South Pacific, a slum in Manila, Philippines, and a hospital/mercy ship in Honolulu Harbor.
Along the way I taught school, cleaned toilets, worked in a ship’s laundry (my favorite—I loved operating the huge machines), and performed in a drama troupe before finding my calling as a writer.
Frequently Asked Questions
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We began writing 42 years ago. We started writing a newsletter and then promotional material for Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in the Philippines. We did that for over a year, after which we began writing books and have been doing so for the last 40 years.
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We both discovered our natural writing ability while serving as missionaries and put that ability to work writing for YWAM in the Philippines, as mentioned above.
Writing engaging narrative books is a more specialized skill set, and we were blessed to learn those skills from John and Elizabeth Sherrill. The Sherrills wrote The Cross and the Switchblade, The Hiding Place, God Smuggler, and many other classic Christian books. They were wonderful teachers who broke down the necessary steps involved in shaping and telling a compelling story.
Like every other craft, once you know the basics you continue to hone and develop them by repeated use. That’s been our experience. We’ve learned a lot about how to write books simply by doing it over and over and challenging ourselves to do it better each time.
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The Christian Heroes: Then & Now series is comprised of 50 books.
The Heroes of History series is made up of 32 books.
We are not sure how many books our upcoming new series Hero Stories will include; we have a long list of fascinating people we want to write about. Currently the first book in the series on John Paton a Scottish missionary among the cannibals of the New Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific Ocean is already written, and we are more than halfway through telling the story of writer J.R.R. Tolkien, which will be the second book. Both books will be released mid-2026.
(Be sure to sign up to our mailing list to be notified when they come out.)
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We began writing the first book (Hudson Taylor) in the Christian Heroes series in June 1997. We wrote the first book in the Heroes of History Series (George Washington Carver) in 2000 and wrote the John Paton book for the Hero Stories series in 2025.
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It took a bit of figuring out how to do this, but we have a tight system now.
The writing process we follow goes like this: Janet does the initial research for the book, this involves reading other biographies about the person, their autobiography, dairies and journals (if any), and online material, basically anything we can get our hands on about the person.
Following her reading, Janet writes the first draft of the manuscript. However, in the process there are many places where she just jots down notes and references in the text. After finishing the first draft of each chapter, she hands it on to Geoff, who begins editing her work. When he comes to the places where Janet has left notes and references, Geoff reads all the material noted and then writes the scene or passage that needs to be added to the chapter.
Once Geoff completes the chapter, he goes through it again editing some more and polishing the language. Once the manuscript is complete we both go through it one more time to pick up any errors, typos, bad grammar and syntax and the like. At that stage the manuscript is complete and ready to enter the publishing process.
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Sometimes, in the course of our research, we would find a person we think could be interesting to write about and suggest them to our publisher. Sometimes our publisher would tell us about someone they thought would be interesting for the series. From this input we would agree on who the next person to write about would be and set to work telling their story.
Over the years, from our research and from reader suggestions we have developed a long list heroic and inspiring stories we feel passionate about telling. Now that our publisher has decided to end development of the Christian Heroes: Then & Now and Heroes of History series we are using our assembled list to guide who we write about in our new Hero Stories series. Of course, we are still open to suggestions from our readers about new inspiring stories to add to the list.
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This is not an easy question to answer since we like so many of the stories we’ve written in this series. So, it’s hard to boil it down to one book, and in fact Geoff can’t. Here goes:
Geoff: In the Christian Heroes series it’s a dead heat for me between John Williams and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Those who’ve read the book on John Williams know he is probably the most important missionary to the Pacific Islands. Coming from New Zealand, I was always aware of his tireless effort spreading the Gospel throughout the islands. Years ago, when we visited Janet’s parents, living on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands at the time, we saw the church John Williams established there. I’ve also visited many of the islands and seen firsthand the results of his work. For these reasons John William’s story remains one of my favorites.
Meanwhile, the book on Dietrich Bonhoeffer was the most challenging book I’ve worked on in the Christian Heroes series. I had to understand the events of World Wars I & II and the period between them from the German perspective. The challenge then became how to unfold those events through the eyes of a German boy who becomes a man during this time and is convinced he must confront the wickedness surrounding him. It’s both a sad and inspiring book and I’m proud of the work Janet and I did in bringing his story to life for a new audience.
Janet: If you ask me at different times, you’ll get different answers! Right now, my favorite Christian Heroes book is William Booth: Soup, Soap and Salvation. I have always loved Victorian English history, and William Booth had a significant impact on England at that time. I love the way he saw a problem in society and instead of complaining about it, set to work to solve it. I also love the way his wife Catherine and his daughters were fully involved in the work with him.
When I was young, I read a lot of Charles Dickens’ books, (I still have the book reports to prove it), and I loved “spending time” back there. One of the things I love most about writing all of the books is that I get to research and imagine other times and other places.
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As with the Christian Heroes series, this is not an easy question to answer, but here goes:
Geoff: My favorite book in the Heroes of History series is Ernest Shackleton: Going South. I was aware of Ernest Shackleton’s remarkable story since boyhood and jumped at the opportunity to tell it for the series. He wasn’t the most successful Antarctic explorer of the early twentieth century, but without a doubt he is the greatest leader to set foot on the southern continent. During the disastrous Endurance expedition, Shackleton singlehandedly led all his men to safety across dangerous sea ice to the barren safety of Elephant Island. Then with five others he sailed across the vicious Southern Ocean in a converted lifeboat to South Georgia Island where he organized a rescue ship to retrieve his crew from Elephant Island. Shackleton gave his men true leadership in some of the most extreme conditions on earth.
Janet: I love the story of Laura Ingalls Wilder. She had a difficult life, and she did not start writing until later. It was a total surprise to her and her family that she became a famous writer. I enjoyed writing this book because her life was so “ordinary” to her—crops being harvested and eaten, floods, snow drifts, Indians passing through, but time has made this ordinary story of an ordinary girl in the late 1800s extraordinary. It reminds me how important it is to document everyday life, because thousands of everyday experiences can add up to an interesting story. Like Laura, in the future, the simple things you and I do will seem very exotic and interesting to someone else.
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After writing the Christian Heroes: Then & Now series for 28 years and the Heroes of History for 25 years with a total of 82 books across the two series, YWAM Publishing and Emerald Books, the two publishing houses (operated by the same principals) that published the books, decided to end active development of the two series. This means there will be no new books written by Janet and Geoff Benge published in either series. However, the books will remain for sale through the YWAM Publishing network.
While we are sorry the two series have ended, we are still passionate about telling heroic and inspiring stories like those in the Christian Heroes: Then & Now and Heroes of History series.
Over the years, from our research and from reader suggestions we’ve developed a long list of people whose stories we would like to tell. To do this we are launching a new book series called Hero Stories. The storytelling in these books will mirror the approach used in the previous two series. That is our unique storytelling style and through it we hope to continue to Entertain, Inform, and Inspire our readers.