You may know that I write books for young children about Fred the snake. I am often asked, and you may wonder, why choose a snake? Snakes are not most children’s favorite pets or cuddlies. Surely a koala bear or a cute dog would have been a better subject, and gotten more traction in the marketplace? The answer is prosaic (whatever that means). I am/was a gastroenterologist, spending many of my days guiding long black flexible instruments (endoscopes) into peoples downs and ups (yuck!). When I explained my day job to my then young children, Andy and Nicky, and showed them photos, they said “It’s a SNAKE”.
OK, that makes sort of sense, so why Fred! Not sure about that but I think it’s because we (the kids and I) were obsessed with a popular song at the time, brought to life by the lovely Bernard Cribbins. We had been moving house and the helpers had been having difficulty getting some furniture upstairs. Try singing it…..
“Right” said Fred “Both of us together, one each end and steady as we go”
Tried to shift it, couldn’t even lift it, we was getting nowhere.
And so, we had a cuppa tea and
“Right” said Fred, “Give a shout for Charlie”
Up comes Charlie from the floor below
After strainin’, heavin’ and complainin’ we was getting nowhere
And so, we had a cuppa tea
And Charlie had a think, and he thought we ought to take off all the handles
And the things wot held the candles
But it did no good, well I never thought it would
“All right, ” said Fred, “Have to take the feet off
To get them feet off wouldn’t take a mo”.
Took its feet off, even took the seat off
Should have got us somewhere but no!
So Fred said, “Let’s have another cuppa tea”
And we said, “right-o”……..and more
Bernard Cribbins, last seen with John Cleese in Fawlty Towers
So we called the snake “Fred”, and made him the hero of a bedtime story for the kids to teach them how (not) to cross the road. Initially titled “A cautionary tail” (sic), it became “When Fred the Snake got Squished and Mended”.
Twenty years later, when Andy had kids, he asked “What happened to Fred-Fred”? They called him that because of the aforementioned squishing.
I found the crumpled text, tweaked it and found a perfect illustrator, Canadian Bonnie Lemaire. We published the first one in 2018, and now have nine. Fred went to school, invited Jungle Jim, explored Charleston, went to the Beach (on Dewees), went Camping, and just finished three books exploring USA.
Fred is resting now…..but you may find signed copies of all his books at https://www.petercottontales.com
While cruising a book store recently, I discovered that Fred is not an uncommon Children’s book hero.
That’s quite enough for now……thanks for listening…
Go Fred
