'The Giant Christmas Pudding Calamity'

The dentist had had only one experience with crocodiles and this explained why his head was an unusual shape

'The Giant Christmas Pudding Calamity and other stirring stories', a book by Cathy Beer for 6 to 11 year-olds and appealing also to adults, started as a series of children's stories originally written for the Focolare monthly magazine New City. They are about two ladies, Miss Plumket and Mrs Medlicott and the adventures they get up to in the village of Little Snoring. Then New City publishers decided to publish the stories as a book, which came out a few months ago, with delightful illustrations by Duncan Harper.

"I wanted my stories to be fun, and at the same time in some way to reflect the Christian spirit, that is, dialogue, to build relationships of mutual respect, conveyed in a very natural way, without any overt moral endings but simply integrating those values with humour through tragic/comic situations. Situations where simple acts of love or heroism, sometimes going beyond the capacities of these rather bumbling and eccentric characters, eventually win the day, often with an unexpected twist."

The dentist had had only one experience with crocodiles and this explained why his head was an unusual shape. He put his head inside the jaws and examined every tooth one by one. They all seemed fine. He finally came to the last one. 'Oh my goodness,' he exclaimed. 'What?' cried the crowd... 'Can I help at all?' said the lady from Customer Services at B & Q….

The Giant Christmas Pudding Calamity ISBN 978-1-905039-47-0 Available from New City Books www.newcity.co.uk Email orders@newcity.co.uk Tel 01707 903900 £7.50 (Postage free on orders of thre books or more)