Mr and Mrs Grunt, who are neither clean nor clever, live with their adopted - in fact, abducted - son, Sunny, in a donkey-drawn caravan somewhere or other at some time that is a bit like now but not exactly now. Sunny is an oddlooking boy, what with his left ear being higher than his right ear and that kind of sticky-up hair which NEVER goes flat, even if you massage glue into it and then jump on it. Together the unusual family find themselves in frankly improbable but very funny adventures involving bendy railings, double-barrelled shotguns, full-fat yoghurt
and, always, a beard of bees.

Roald Dahl Funny Prize winning author Philip Ardagh is the author of The Grunts. He is probably best known for his Grubtown Tales, but he is author of over 100 books. He is a "regular irregular¿ reviewer of children's books for The Guardian, and is currently developing a series for television. Philip Ardagh is two metres tall with a ridiculously big, bushy beard and size sixteen feet, making him an instantly recognisable figure at literary festivals around the world.