Horsmarlonerpool harbour is always very busy. There are four piers, Pier 1, Pier 2, Pier 3 and a brand new super pier that can handle the biggest ships from all around the world.

Shampoo the engine had chugged down the track from the station ready to pick up a long rake of trucks full of fresh cargo. But when he got to the harbour he found it deserted - no ships, and just a line of empty trucks that weren’t ready to be taken anywhere.

“I don’t know where all the ships are,” said the Harbour Master, scratching his head. “They should have been here by now.”

Noel looked forward to Sundays more than any other day, because it was Sundays - if it was a bit wet and if it was a bit miserable - that his Daddy would normally scratch his mustache and say “Who wants to go to the movies?”

When he would say this, Noel didn’t normally answer. Because he didn’t have time to answer in the two seconds it took him to race out the room, but on his coat and stand waiting by the front door!

You see, Noel loved films. He liked the smell of the cinema, he liked the feel of the red seats, he liked the lights going down - and then… well, that was all he could ever remember. Because although Noel liked films soooo much, he always always fell asleep.

Just to the north of Horsmarlonerpool, about a ten minute walk out of the Old Town, is a wood called Sprivers.

Unlike Bluebell Wood by the Meadows, which is carpeted in peaceful blue flowers, Sprivers is wilder, with bigger trees and secret valleys and parts that are more jungle than wood - and so it’s even better for adventures.

It’s also the perfect wood for camping in, because it’s so large you can find your own secret area and build a camp there that would never be found by anyone until you came back to visit it the next time. And so Sprivers was Leah and Felix’s favorite place to pack two rucksacks of food, and go off and spend the night.

Miss Kelvingrove was a very exact and precise person. She always dressed neatly, she never made much noise, and her hair was tied up in a tight and perfectly round bun.

Miss Kelvingrove liked things to be laid out in perfect rows, and in absolute order. She liked to keep her egg cups in rows in a special egg cup cupboard, she liked to keep her shoes in a neat rows by the front door because she never wore her shoes over her perfect carpets, and when she bought candy sweeties, she laid them out in a row and ate one every fifteen minutes and thirty seconds.

Jennifer’s bedroom was at the back of the house, overlooking the garden, which, whilst small, had three large trees in it which had grown as high as Jennifer’s window.

Each morning, as she woke up and lay in bed, she would listen to the birdsong in the trees outside. It always sounded like excited and happy singing, and before Jennifer got up she liked to listen and imagine what they were saying. Were they just all wishing each other good morning, or were they telling jokes, or were they explaining their adventures or the dreams that they’d just had?

Kit sat at the table in the kitchen munching his breakfast of toast and smashberry jam, casually flicking through the pages of his latest copy of Inca Invincibles magazine.

“Oh, Kit” sighed Daddy. “Look at your tie!”

Kit glanced down and saw a blob of jam on his striped, olive green and ruby red school tie. As Daddy got a cloth from the basin Kit said “Don’t worry,” lifted the tie to his mouth and licked it clean.

“That’s a brand new uniform,” said Mummy.

“And now it’s a clean one!” Said Kit. “If the cat can do it, why can’t I?”