The Captain of the Black Swan: (1 The Dittos of Dawlish)

Can an invisible orphan save his town from rock-eating monsters? When Tom, an orphan Ditto, shelters from a fierce storm in a rabbit burrow, he emerges to find Dawlish has been wrecked. Many Ditto houses have been blown down from the trees and their owners race to salvage their homes before they are discovered by humans. Hearing the storm has also washed away the railway line, Tom hurries to view the damage. Swooping low on his flying scooter, he spots a huge crater below the twisted rails with strange tracks leading away from it. Could the old legends be true? Has the storm released monsters from below the earth? Or are other forces at work? Calling on his friends, Tom sets out to find the truth before humans discover what has happened and the very existence of Dittos and other magical creatures is put at risk. The Captain of the Black Swan is the first in the Dittos of Dawlish trilogy. Its lovable characters, engaging storylines and magical world will captivate young readers.

About the Author :
From childhood, siblings David Hardie and Diana Townsend loved telling stories. While still at school, despite being dyslexic, David won a competition to have a play he had written produced by the BBC. As teenagers, David and Diana helped their father build an animated model of a three-ring circus which was exhibited around the UK. Later, the family bought a derelict school which they transformed into a tourist attraction. Diana has written a series of memoirs about these years under the title Me, My Family and the Poltergeist. When the tourist attraction closed, the family started a new business creating Christmas displays for shopping centres as well as hand-sculpting thousands of figures for model villages across the UK. In more recent years, David and Diana, together with Diana's husband, Robert Townsend, have produced a number of short films and two feature films. While David's children were young, he told them stories of the Dittos, invisible elf-like creatures who live in the seaside town of Dawlish, helping to look after wildlife and clean up after visitors. Working with Diana, David has now developed these stories into a trilogy of books under the title The Dittos of Dawlish. From childhood, David Hardie loved telling stories. While still at school, he won a competition to have a play he had written produced by the BBC. After school, David worked as a sculptor and woodcarver, creating displays for tourist attractions and shopping centres as well as hand modelling many thousands of figures for model villages across the UK. In more recent years, David has written and produced two feature films. While his children were young, he told them stories of the Dittos, invisible elf-like creatures who live in the seaside town of Dawlish, helping to look after the wildlife and clean up after visitors. Working with his sister, Diana Townsend, David used these stories as the basis for the books in the series The Dittos of Dawlish.