"A fantastic story for parents to read as a bedtime story to young kids or a great 'read by themselves' book for older kids" During the day Fudge and Smudge were guinea pigs, just like any other guinea pigs that you might see at a friend's house or in a pet shop. However, when the sun goes down and night arrives, and all humans are fast asleep in their beds, Fudge and Smudge have a very special job to do. For Fudge and Smudge are pet detectives. Their mission to patrol the village of Barley Close protecting and serving all the pets who live there. The author is an internationally renowned professor in science; most certainly not in English; and also a dad. Also being Northern Irish he was born with gift of story telling. Some say he didn't just kiss the Blarney Stone, he swallowed it whole. When his kids were young some 20+ years ago the stories were made up and told to his two kids, James and Kirsty, never ever written down. He used to tell the stories to his kids and their friends. Made up stories that were told to groups of kids on family outings with friends to the pub, beach, restaurant etc. Then one day all these kids told their teachers about it & he was invited into school to tell some stories to whole classes. But he couldn't just rock up and just be let loose on some under 10 year old kids, so had to write them down for teachers to check. This was the very first time he had to do this and he hated it. Why? Well, whilst mastering and excelling at science and maths at school, this so called 'author' had struggled to write and spell all his life, and still does. His wife still lovingly jokes that English is his second language, and that they're still looking for what language is his first. These badly hand written stories with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors lay at the back of a cupboard since then. Now his kids generation are having their own kids so the stories got dug out again. Seen by a book agent who suggested they should be published and the rest is history or indeed silly madness. Much to the annoyance of his editor, publisher et al, he has insisted all his stories were published more or less exactly how he'd written it. His view was, who cares if a comma is in wrong place if it's being read out loud or just being enjoyed. He knew he'd be hung drawn and quartered by the literary world for this, but rightly or wrongly he had his reasons.He wanted it as an example to all kids who aren't great at spelling or writing either. You can turn out ok anyway.Even though you get told off for 'grammatical errors' in class you can still enjoy words, books, novels. You can still use the words, you can still enjoy stories, and most important of all you can make your own story. These are just some of his stories, we hope you enjoy them. Now make up your own stories, just like he did, and enjoy words.