Michael Read was born in 1948 and married in 1972. He has lived in Cambridge his entire life and has two sons.

He was Head Teacher of a primary school for over 33 years. Now retired, he is drawing on all those years of experience in the form of writing very imaginative and entertaining short stories for children.

He also loves working with model railways, playing the guitar, travelling and being a granddad.

 

The author is a big model railway fan and has been most of his life. See his many layouts and models at www.motleyjunction.co.uk

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"Why did I start writing? My three granddaughters live quite chaotic lives and the stories about them have a great deal of ‘truth’ in them.

I remembered that when much younger, Trixie (book name), would go into their Whittlesea garden and collect snails, put them in a circle and when they started to move off she would return them to their positions. From this recollection the Circle Snails stories were born! Why Circle? Trixie collected snails and put them in a circle and watched them move away. Why Parsley family? Whittlesea is a Fen Town and so I wanted something that grew locally.

Why dance? Trixie puts snails in a circle and corrects them if they stray. What if she taught them to dance? What would their reaction be? Dance is a wonderful expression of life. Everyone that visits wants to see the Circle SnailsDance and they bring their culture, food and dance with them

The Norfolk Snails live next door and access the Circle Snail's garden under the fence. These are real Fen snails and know a lot. They pass on a lot of general knowledge to the Circle Snails that know very little! The Beach Snails from the good old US of A came into the story as there is a Funeral Parlour behind the Parsley family garden and so I had the idea that the snails could fly in on coffins from other countries. The Beach Snails are from California.

The picnic idea came from the Norfolk’s and their allotment. I then made sure everyone who visited the garden should bring a ‘picnic’.The visiting snails have heard about the Circle Snails’ because the much travelled grand parents don’t stop talking about them to anybody and everybody and local snails over-hear. Other visiting snails come from places we have visited or people we know.

The Thunder Snails came about because my granddaughters wanted something to ‘go wrong’. Fine, but if it goes wrong we need a solution and the Thunder Snails always come to the rescue! SAG! (Thunder Snails Are GO!)"