I used to read bedtime stories to my kids and if I got bored by the books would start to embellish the tales.This is an idea done some time ago, and probably when I was in ‘sales’.

One of my theories about children’s books is that the ones you really like ( the adults that is, not the kids, they can listen to almost anything ) are the ones where you are not tempted to embellish. Some of my own favourites were Janet and Allen Ahlberg’s books, and I loved ‘In the Night Kitchen ‘ by Maurice Sendak, I would not change a word of them. But Postman Pat was always ‘fair game’ to me. As I recall he ended up in one of my ’embellishments’ serving time in a maximum security prison after doing a bit of unofficial post office work on behalf of some disreputable chums who had a fondness for baseball bats and wore stockings on the wrong parts of their anatomy.

The kids loved it.