Tim Key

Was that CROCKY-WOCK galumphing up the stairs?
Is STINGALING hiding in your bed?
And what foul fate has PIGGY planned for Farmer Bland?

WARNING! This book contains wickedly funny verse, prickly surprises and the most despicable creatures you could ever hope (not) to meet.

England, 1989. Over the course of a burning hot summer, two very different men - traumatized Falklands veteran Calvert, and affable, chaotic Redbone - set out nightly in a clapped-out camper van to undertake an extraordinary project.

Under cover of darkness, the two men traverse the fields of rural England in secret, forming crop circles in elaborate and mysterious patterns. As the summer wears on, and their designs grow ever more ambitious, the two men find that their work has become a cult international sensation - and that an unlikely and beautiful friendship has taken root as the wheat ripens from green to gold.

Moving and exhilarating, The Perfect Golden Circle is a captivating novel about the futility of war, the destruction of the English countryside, class inequality - and the power of beauty to heal trauma and fight power.

I bet you think you know this story.
You don't. The real one's much more gory.

From Jack in the Beanstalk, Goldilocks and the Three Bears to Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs, wicked beasts, brazen crooks and a ghastly giant star in these hilarious nursery rhymes with BITE!