Beach Hut Books by Cathy Watts

Hello again sandies!!

“More engaging tales from the little creatures who share our beach huts. Fun and environmentally-friendly, Hello again sandies!! is a great read for young and old."
Dr Kathryn Ferry, author of Beach Huts and Bathing Machines, Shire Library.

Yes, the sandies are back again in the eagerly-awaited sequel to Sandies in the Beach Huts. Featuring those cheerful, colourful characters, the sandies, who live underneath the beach huts, Hello again sandies!! brings our promenades and beaches to life in these brand-new stories. Aimed at children from five upwards (and anyone else who loves the seaside!). These enchanting tales, written by Cathy Watts and beautifully illustrated by watercolour artist Emma Ball, combine detailed observations with a magical sense of humour.

Copies of Hello again sandies!! priced £5.99 from:
cathy@beachhutbooks.co.uk
www.emmaball.co.uk
www.pomegranate-press.co.uk

New for 2012!
The woodies by the ponds – due to be launched in late 2012

By Cathy Watts
Illustrated by Emma Ball

The delivery lorry bumped and jolted its way across the field, breaking the silence of that early May morning as it went. It stopped at the old, wooden gate which led down to the ponds.

"This is it!" called one of the three delivery men to his mates as he started to unload the lorry. The eight plump sheep in the field rubbed their woolly bottoms against the ruins of the ancient priory and watched with interest as the men unloaded sheets of blue and cream wood. These they assembled on the far side of the gate between two ponds on a square of concrete which had already been put in place for that purpose. The two ponds were old and deep and large enough to row a boat around. They had once been stew ponds for the black-robed monks who had lived in the priory nearby. A stew pond is like a watery larder where the monks kept their fish – eels, tench, pickerel, bream, perch and roach – before catching them for their supper table. Especially during the winter months fresh meat was a luxury few could afford, but the fish stored alive in the stew ponds certainly kept those monks well fed. But the days of the black-robed monks were well and truly gone and all that remained of the priory were some ruined walls and two piles of flintstones out in the field from the roof supports.

The ponds however were very much alive if you looked carefully and quietly, although on the day of the delivery all seemed peaceful enough. The white-water lily leaves shivered in the wind; the seedheads of the great reedmace waved on the ends of their spiky stems; the branches of the weeping willow trees kissed the surface of the water. But all the pond animals, whether they lived in or around the water's edge, were silent that morning as the delivery men switched on their power hammers and screwdrivers and put together the pretty blue summerhouse that was going to overlook the more southerly of the two ponds and become a feature of the landscape.

"Finished!" said the men at last as they packed away their tools and stood back to look at their work.
"Come on," said the oldest man. "We've still got that other job in Chichester to finish today."
And away they drove, lurching back across the sheep field and out onto the main roads on that special afternoon in May. It was special because it was marked by the arrival of the beautiful blue and cream summerhouse. And there it stood like something out of a fairy tale but somehow more substantial: solid yet full of character with a silver, metal roof and two pretty, cream windows on either side of the sturdy front door.

As the grass sprang back into place where the delivery men's feet had been and the late-afternoon sunshine touched the new summerhouse in welcome you could, if you were very quiet, see the dragonflies and damselflies dancing over the white-lily leaves again and hear the birds singing once more in the trees. And if you had waited a while longer, you might even have glimpsed the iridescent blue of the kingfisher's back who had resumed his perch on the willow tree waiting for fish to swim past. Or you might have seen the black tip of a stoat's tail going about its business or heard the loud 'plop!' of a water vole diving into the water. The moorhen's fluffy, inky-black chicks had also emerged from their hiding places amongst the reeds around the edge of the pond and their mother could be heard calling to them to keep safe or the heron might get them.

But had you waited even longer you might, if you are a noticing kind of person which I am sure you are, have spotted four tiny faces at the windows of the new summerhouse peeping out cautiously onto the world outside. Each tiny face was surrounded by jet-black hair and each tiny head had a hat on top of it: a hat in bottle green but with a differently-coloured feather in each one. And the feather in each hat matched exactly the colour of the neckerchief which framed the lower part of each of the four faces. Yes, these were the woodies and the stories in this new book* are about their adventures around and about the ponds lying in the grounds of the ancient priory.

* The woodies by the ponds is due to be launched in 2012. It is written for the 6-10 age group and for anyone else who likes pond life!

Other books for the 6-10 age group written by Cathy Watts and illustrated by Emma Ball are:
Sandies in the beach huts (2008)
Hello again Sandies!! (2009)
Watch out for the sandies (2011)

The sandies series is inspired by the seaside. Sandies finger puppets are also available. See www.beachhutbooks.co.uk and www.emmaball.co.uk for further details.