Graeme Foster moved to Rye from Surrey around 20 years ago. Some of the people that he has encountered over the years have inspired him to write a children’s book set in a fictional village that is really our lovely home town of Rye, and those people appear as characters in the book, not as adults, but as children.
It starts with Kat and her group of friends, Little Mark, Sleepy Dave, Musky Pants and Poppet Chop who want some fun in the school summer holidays. It’s a beautiful sunny day and all very tranquil and they set off to their favourite sweet shop to stock up before the day’s adventure.
When they get there, the owner confides that he has developed a sweet making machine into which the contents of discarded takeaways mixed with molasses will make him the wealthiest sweet shop owner in the world as it tastes so good.
What he doesn’t realise is that there are a couple of adventurous mice hiding in the room where the machine is, and when he goes out they binge on the mixture. These mice get bigger and bigger, fatter and fatter, and start to take on human traits. The resulting scenario is huge amounts of belching and flatulence, that goes up the chimney to create a foul smelling green fog.
Over the next couple of days the weather across the country is fine except for this village where the fog has become more dense and smellier. The owner of the sweet shop is still blissfully unaware of these giant mice, residing in his attic.
The mice need to feed their addiction and they don a hat and coat and go out into the night to get more discarded take-aways and continue to grow and get fatter. Kat and her gang know that its something to do with the new machine and decide to get to the bottom of it and with the assistance of the wisest person in town, Victor Toast, they take action.
There’s a moral in the story which will become apparent as you read to the end.
If you think that a couple of characters bear a remarkable resemblance to some Ryers then you wouldn’t be wrong. Many of you probably know our very own Rye resident and personality Mark Baker and in the book he wears tweed, a flat cap and has a beard even though he is a child. It’s been beautifully illustrated by local illustrator Oliver Brooks and there has been an initial print run of only 150 copies which Graeme is happy to personalise and sign.
The cost of the book is £7.99 and if you wish to secure a copy you can reach him on fozzierye@gmail.com.
Image Credits: Jess Angell .