Stric

If you think Babar is the only fictional elephant with a cult following, then you haven't met Uncle. This filthy-rich,purple-dressing-gown-clad elephant divides his time between visiting the denizens of the towers and caverns of his estate and fending off the evil plots of his arch rivals, the Badfort Crowd. Each bedtime-reading-length chapter of Uncle introduces children to another delightful inhabitant of Uncle's world: Signor Guzman, keeper of the oil lakes, who is forever tossing discarded matches into the nearby pools; the proprietors of Cheapman's Store (where motorbikes are a half-penny each) and Dearman's Shop (where the price of an old milk jug goes up daily); and many others.

For every friend of Uncle, there is a foe who is as deliciously evil as he is hapless. Luckily the elaborately misconceived schemes cooked up by the Badfort Crowd are no match for Uncle's superior wits.

Quentin Blake's quirky illustrations are the perfect complement to the whole madcap alternate world that J.P. Martin conjures up, a wonderfully happy one where the good guys always come out on top, and once a year, everybody, bad and good, settles down together for an enormous Christmas Dinner.