The Animals Bedtime Storybook

The People who Wrote the Stories Lucy Coats: The very first book I ever wrote for children, called One Hungry Baby, was full of baby animals. When I was a little girl, I had a pet bantam called Rowena, who always sat on the back of my car seat on the way to school. My Number One favourite animal is definitely a bear, although when I came face to face with a big Brown Bear on a recent visit to America, I ran away! I live with two mad dogs who look like long electrocuted perms with bottlebrush tails. They leap at flies all day, and always look surprised when they miss. Alan Durant: I live with a feisty aged cat called Puddy, who appears in my book Jake's Magic. I've written lots of books featuring animals, including Snake Supper, Big Fish Little Fish and Mouse Party. In my Spider McDrew stories, the main character has a pet cow, and the star of my recent book Creepe Hall for Ever! is a six-legged mechanical cat called Tiddles! Vivian French: I love animals. They don't worry about whether they're fat, or whether they've got their fur nicely brushed. They just get on with their lives, eating, sleeping - or watching me watching them! I've written about all kinds of animals - frogs in Growing Frogs, spiders in Spider Watching, whales in Whale Journey - and wolves and foxes and bears and all sorts in Aesop's Funky Fables. My favourite? Morris - the cat in Morris and the Cat Flap. Adele Geras: I'm fond of the animals whose tales I tell in this book. I love giraffes best because I used to see them when I lived in Africa, a long time ago. But my very favourite creature of all is the cat. We have a lovely cat called Mimi and I'm devoted to her. I've written a series of four stories written in cats' voices, called The Cats of Cuckoo Square. Michael Lawrence: I once worked for a travelling circus. It was part of my job to buy sheeps' heads to feed to the lions and tigers. I didn't like this job much and have never written a story about it. I've written lots of other stories, though. Books too. One of the books is called The Poppykettle Papers. Another is called The Killer Underpants. Neither of them has anything to do with sheep. Jenny Nimmo: I've always had at least one animal in my life. As a child I wasn't much interested in dolls or stuffed toys. Animals were my preferred friends. Last year I reared a baby jackdaw, and when it had learned to fly, it would dive out of the sky and land on my head. An astonishing and wonderful sensation. Jeremy Strong: Animals have always been Big in my life. My first favourite book, when I was four, was called Winky the Squirrel. We have always had pet cats, but also a dog, hamsters, gerbils, mice, goldfish and stick insects. I would love a pet tiger, but my wife won't let me. She says our cat flap isn't big enough. Some of my stories with animals: The Hundred Mile an Hour Dog, My Dad's Got an Alligator!, Dinosaur Pox, Problems with a Python, Max and the Petnappers. Jean Ure: I have been making up stories ever since I can remember - my very first book was published while I was still at school, and writing is the only real job I have ever had. As well as making up stories I help look after our family of seven rescued dogs and four rescued cats. This is why I have written lots of books about animals! If you enjoy reading about animals, try the puppy present.Alan Durant,Vivian French,Adele Geras,Michael Lawrence,Jenny Nimmo,Jeremy Strong,Jean Ure Lucy Coats is the author of 'The Animals Bedtime Storybook', published 2000 under ISBN 9781858818047 and ISBN 1858818044.