Charlie's
World started by pure chance...after listening to
my eldest grandson, Mark, then 5, treating us to
his thoughts on life, at the tea table. He had opinions
- mostly hilarious - on many topics, including the
fact that he wanted to be a burglar when he grew
up. His father was a policeman! We gently pointed
out that being a burglar was not a great career
move, and why, but Mark stuck to his guns. He wanted
to be a 'good' burglar... a modern day Robbing Hood!
As he pointed out, both his mother and myself had
'tons of great stuff, like cups and things, that
you don't use, and l know people who might need
these cups and things. Poor people!' We sorted that
one out, but a germ of an idea grew in my mind,
especially after hearing his thoughts on train journeys...
The first Charlie story - a one-off
l thought at the time - involved a five year old
going on what should have been a very boring shopping
trip with his mother. On a train. Instead of grumbling
that all he could see were the hems of people's
coats and that his snub nose was at the same level
as the bus tyres, the inimitable Charlie turned
the whole thing into a huge adventure. To the delight
of all the early passengers on the homegoing train,
who were treated to a blow by blow (and frequently
embarrassing) account of what his mother had bought.
I chose Charlie's surname from the first
reader who sent a letter in praise of the series.
This lady is Joyce Harper from Cornwall. I contacted
her and asked how she, and her husband Frank, felt
about becoming Charlie's 'unofficial' grandparents.
Joyce and Frank were highly delighted and readily
agreed.
When the tale was published in MY WEEKLY
magazine, the response from readers was amazing.
Letters poured in. Love letters for Charlie. Some
time later, my editor, the late and much-missed
Ian Sommerville, suggested l try a series of six
stories to run on a weekly basis. This time, the
letters came, in their hundreds, from all around
the world. Begging for more. I am currently working
on series eight, and Charlie appears in the magazine's
Christmas and Holiday Reading Specials. My little
star is now nine years old. Over the last years,
he has visited the Tower of London...Roman remains...all
sorts of places. He has fallen in love with his
darling Daisy Pollock. His family has grown - there
are four year old identical twin sisters - Beth
and Georgia - and toddler brother Sam. Charlie has
had to face the harsher side of life, too, by the
sudden death of his beloved friend and next-door-neighbour
Hector. Along with his friends, Charlie not only
is concerned about saving the earth, he has taken
action. By expanding Charlie's family, l am able
to get the viewpoints of varying-in-ages 21st century
children. The twins are now taking over the 'funny
dialogue' stuff. And Sam is fast catching up.
Why not take this opportunity to read,
absolutely free, the very first CHARLIE story, it
was originally published by My Weekly in September
1995. It is from this first story that the series
was commissioned and every episode, of each 6 part
series, follows on from the previous one. The eighth
series is now in the writing stage and Charlies
is growing up fast. To read the very first CHARLIE
story click
here.
The first three series are now available
together with other (non Charlie) stories by Patti,
to view the full available list click
here to visit Charlie's Story Shop.
