Look Out! Here Comes Trouble!

By Thomas Stuart and Pippa Duffy

Come join us down on the farm! There you can meet our hero Graham Grunter, the pig sometimes known as Superham...along with Henry the cockerel and Cockita the hen. Let's not forget Griselda the Giddy goat and the Ghastly Gaggle of Geese...and of course Jack, who goes to Cockita's rescue and pits his strength against Evel Ksniezle, the worst weasel in the world! This book is for boys and girls aged six to sixty...and beyond.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Jan 31, 2015
• ISBN: 9781499088007

Thomas Stuart

Pippa was born and educated in England before leaving for sunnier shores with her South African-born husband. Although a qualified junior-school teacher, theatre was her first love and for many years she was resident actor, director, playwright, songwriter and lyricist with the highly acclaimed Story Spinning Theatre Company in Cape Town, South Africa. The company firmly believed that their musicals should be written for the whole family; after all, if Mum, Dad and other mature family members enjoyed the shows, they would be more inclined to continue bringing their five to twelve year olds along to the theatre. The formula worked well, and it was with this in mind that Pippa wrote her book of stories for bigger people to read to smaller people. Of course, it is hoped that the smaller people will reread the book to themselves when able to do so. Thomas Stuart attended the University of the West of England, attaining a BA honours degree in illustration and animation. He lives with his wife in Bristol, England, and is currently working as a freelance illustrator, graphic designer and practising artist. He has worked with the BBC as a designer, and has had several commissions from various authors to create their book covers. Tom has been influenced by the classic pen and ink style of Ralph Steadman, and the beautiful soft touches of Anita Jeram’s watercolours.

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Copyright © 2015 by Pippa Duffy.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 01/29/2015

Xlibris

0-800-056-3182

www.xlibrispublishing.co.uk

516961

CONTENTS

Author’s Note

Chapter 1 Graham Grunter Escapes!

Chapter 2 The Stranger in the Shabby Shed

Chapter 3 Superham to the Rescue!

Chapter 4 A Fight in the Night in the Barn on the Farm!

Chapter 5 Griselda The Giddy Goat and the Ghastly Gaggle of Geese

About the Author and Artist

This book is

dedicated to Alexander, Jonathan and Mia,

children of Graham and Jill Duffy,

and also to Miles, the godson of

Thomas Stuart.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

T hese were the stories that I told to my son Graham, when he was a little boy. We would sit close to each other, and when the songs came up I would accompany myself on the guitar. Little did I know that when he grew up, Graham would marry a beautiful girl named Jill! Now I sing and tell the stories to their three children. They were very excited when I told them that my friend Tom would be creating some wonderful illustrations, and that we would be publishing all the tales (or tails) in one book!

Tom hopes you will enjoy adding some colour to his drawings, and I hope you will enjoy making up the tunes for Graham Grunter’s songs. If you like, you can order the sheet music and chords of the songs, as originally composed. Just write to Pippa at [e-mail]. The songs are registered with the Southern African Music Rights Organisation. Their website is www.samro.org.za.

1

GRAHAM GRUNTER ESCAPES!

Up and Down and Over the Hill!

G raham Grunter was a portly pig who lived in a pleasant pigsty on Farmer Fred’s farm. Now you might think that ‘Graham’ is a rather posh name for a pig, but nothing could be further from the truth; in fact Farmer Fred always pronounced the name, ‘Grey-ham,’ which was far from posh. This was probably because the pig was a bit of a stick-in-the-mud and spent most of his time stuck-in-the-mud, which resulted in him having a permanent grey patch on his porky pink posterior.

Be that as it may, Graham Grunter was not a very happy pig because he lived all by himself. He’d once had a playmate named Jill sharing his pigsty with him, but she had gone to live in the purple pigpen on Farmer Frank’s farm on the other side of the hill, leaving Graham with mere memories.

‘I remember what a perfectly plump and pretty pig Jill was,’ thought Graham, ‘With pert pink ears, a twirly tail, trim trotters—and the cutest little snout you ever did see—oh what a joy she was to me; and now I miss her terribly!’

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Graham Grunter.

You see, Farmer Fred’s cornfields had not produced much corn the year before, which meant that Farmer Fred hadn’t made enough money to feed two pigs.

One day he’d said to his neighbour, Quite frankly Farmer Frank, my cornfields didn’t do at all well last year and I don’t know how I’ll be able to afford to keep my two pigs.

Farmer Frank had replied, That’s a great pity, but I’ll tell you what I’ll do, I’ll exchange one of your pigs for twenty bags of my corn; that way you’ll have only one pig to feed and enough corn to last you for the rest of the year. So Jill was sold to Farmer Frank, and that’s how she came to be living in his purple pigpen.

Being quite a musical pig, Graham Grunter spent his lonely hours composing songs. His favourite was his Lonely Song, and it went like this.

I’m a lonely little pig, yes I am.

I live by