Book excerpt: The first book in the Tales from Fern Hollow series, with detailed, colourful and cheerful illustrations, for ages 3-93. Meet Brock Gruffy (badger), Sigmund Swamp (toad), Policeman P C Hoppit (hare), Lord Trundle (fox), the Prickles family (hedgehogs), the Croaker family (frogs) and other fun Fern Hollow characters in this first visit to the village through the seasons of the year. The animals of Fern Hollow are all good friends and neighbours and if you are a stranger they will make you feel at home in next to no time. Written and illustrated by British author/illustrator, John Patience, this book takes us on a visit to the village of Fern Hollow, tucked away in the English countryside in the early 20th Century. 64 pages, richly illustrated in traditional style, introduce us, through the seasons of the year, to some of the animal characters in the 16 stories that followed through the 1980s and 1990s. The map on the endpapers helps children find their way around the village and appears in every single title in the Tales from Fern Hollow series. Children really love the map and enjoy pointing out where all their favourite characters live and the stories take place. These wholesome and gently humorous stories of animal folk have an enduring charm. A generation of people who had the Fern Hollow stories as children now love sharing them with their own children. Parents who read the books with their children back in the 1980s and 1990s are now enjoying them all over again with their grandchildren. Now back in print from John's own imprint, Talewater Press, this edition, published in 2019, contains the same story and illustrations as the original version. The charming and gently humorous Fern Hollow animal stories have remained popular since they were first published in 1980.