Grumlin O’Grady is a children’s story in the traditional mould, complete with a hidden world, talking animals, mortal dangers and urgent quests. Not to mention a splash of elfin magic. There is plenty within these pages to keep a child captivated at bed time, and this was at least part of Joan’s intention.

The story was inspired by a particular passage in Joan’s life, when she moved to a farm in Kent, England, together with her husband Alan and their ten children. The couple worked hard to tame the land and put the old farm house in order. The project was a success, but their path was beset by numerous obstacles. Rabbits ate their way through the vegetable plot, rats got at the chicken feed, the lights in the house would turn on by themselves, and various items of machinery would stop working for no apparent reason. Rather than be overwhelmed by these inconveniences, Joan chose to explain them as the work of a naughty gremlin who was angry at being disturbed by the arrival of these noisy humans.

Joan told her children that this little half-elf named Grumlin O’Grady had previously lived in the old fireplace with his best friend, a grey mouse. However, they had now fled to a new home at the base of an ash tree by the pond. The children were captivated by this idea, and so Joan began to make up ever more intricate tales of this grumpy little fellow’s life and his mischievous doings. At some point, she began committing the tales to paper, and this volume is the fruit of that effort.

The plot of this particular story revolves around Grumlin O’Grady’s outrage at being ousted from his beloved home, together with the upset and danger faced by the many animals inhabiting the undergrowth, much of which was being cleared by the thoughtless humans. However, this theme is interwoven with another: that of Grumlin’s struggle to overcome his own selfish nature and live up to the higher ideals dictated by his elfin heritage. As such, this is not only a riveting tale of Man versus Nature, but also of a bad-tempered little chap’s quest for redemption.

Joan tells the story from the grass-high perspective of Grumlin and his many animal friends, including details of their domestic and culinary arrangements – not to mention their fear and bemusement at the actions of the intruding humans. The end result is an imaginative, humorous and sensitively written tale.

To buy a copy on the Amazon website, click on the button below: