This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. One of my television songs, A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. I also continued to write “grown-up” songs and perform them in folk clubs and on the radio, and have recently released two CDs of these songs. “We want a song about throwing crumpled-up wrapping paper into the bin” was a typical request from the BBC. I became an expert at writing to order on such subjects as guinea pigs, window-cleaning and horrible smells. The busking led to a career in singing and songwriting, mainly for children’s television. I studied Drama and French at Bristol University, where I met Malcolm, a guitar-playing medic to whom I’m now married.īefore Malcolm and I had our three sons we used to go busking together and I would write special songs for each country the best one was in Italian about pasta. A wind-up gramophone wafted out Chopin waltzes. Mary and I were always creating imaginary characters and mimicking real ones, and I used to write shows and choreograph ballets for us. Mary and I would argue about which of us would marry him). The Detective Dog Book and CD Pack comes with an audio CD, read by actress and singer Dame Floella Benjamin, perfect for reading along.I grew up in a tall Victorian London house with my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle, younger sister Mary and cat Geoffrey (who was really a prince in disguise. Written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by the multi-talented illustrator and print-maker Sara Ogilvie, The Detective Dog is a fast-paced celebration of books, reading, libraries and the relationship between a little boy and his rather special dog. Books about dinosaurs, books about space and even books about dogs – Nell loves them all! But one day Peter and Nell arrive at school to find all the books have disappeared! Who could have taken them, and why? Luckily, Detective Dog Nell, with help from the whole class, is ready to sniff out the thief! When she’s not cracking cases, Nell goes to school with Peter and listens to the children read. Her ever-sniffing nose is always hard at work solving mysteries and finding all Peter’s lost toys.

Peter’s dog Nell has an amazing sense of smell. She was known far and wide as Detective Dog Nell. There once was a dog with a keen sense of smell. When a crime needs solving, there’s only one dog for the job! Join Nell the Detective and help solve the mystery of the missing books.

The detective dog by julia donaldson