Willow Creek
Population: an egret, a salamander, a pelican with opinions, and one inventor nobody trusts with a hammer.
J. Frances Dunne
An egret raised by alligators. A town in the swamp. Three books, and counting.
come down to the water
Everything starts with a chocolate milkshake
The diner is where the trouble gets planned. It has never once been the diner's fault.
Past the last house, the water goes quiet
And on the far bank, Hummingbird Hall
In the newest book a tidal wave comes through the town, and the elderly animals are still inside it.
Who you will meet
The regulars
Skeeta Stix
An egret. Lost as an egg, raised by alligators, and called Amazon Swamp Chicken by people who should know better.
Pede
A salamander. Best friend, second opinion, and travels everywhere by neck.
Captain Jack
A pelican. Has a bill, a cap, and a firm view on absolutely everything.
Woody Crane
An inventor. Nothing he has ever built has worked twice.
The writer
It starts with her mother, and a book about a riverbank.
Skeeta's family, from book one. A photograph of J. Frances Dunne replaces this picture.
J. Frances Dunne was born in Newport, Shropshire. She has lived in North and Central America, which is where the swamp came from, and the animals came from watching them.
Her mother read her The Wind in the Willows. Everything since has been an attempt to get back to that riverbank, by way of Florida.
“I try not to force my writing, so if I just can't focus I usually play music. Unfortunately for my neighbours, I find loud rock works best.” J. Frances Dunne
How the books get made
Longhand, then loud.
Watching
“I find human character and animal behaviour fascinating and incredible. My very active imagination merges the two.”
Longhand
The first pass goes onto paper, which is slower, and better.
Loud rock
Played at the wall on the days a chapter will not move.
Three books
2012, 2014 and 2025, all of them in the same small town.
The books
Three adventures, one town.
The Adventures of Amazon Swamp Chicken
They start a band, solve a heinous crime at the local casino run by a loan shark, rescue a brood of lost moorhens, and befriend a mysterious stranger from Hollywood.
Read an extract
The tree suddenly jerked violently towards the river. The egrets tried to gather their eggs. They manage to grab one each and launch themselves off the collapsing tree, but as the male pushed away, he caught his feet amongst the leaves at what used to be the top of the tree. His feet became entangled and, as he fought to free them, he lost his grip and the egg fell.
It splashed into the river and was swept rapidly away downstream, gone from sight…
Paperback stock is patchy. The Kindle edition is always available.
Amazon Swamp Chicken and the Wild Goose Chase
Book two. A goose, a hot air balloon, and a chase that gets away from everybody.
Buy direct from the authorprinted and posted for her, the best return on a copy
Amazon Swamp Chicken and the Hummingbird Ball
An ancient new resident with a mysterious past, a royal visitor from an exotic land, and another of Woody Crane's inventions. Then a tidal wave comes through Willow Creek, and the elderly animals are stranded at Hummingbird Hall.
Buy direct from the authorprinted and posted for her, the best return on a copySigned copies, direct. Coming soon, posted from Shropshire and inscribed to whoever is going to read it.
What readers say
Read aloud, and read again.
Book one: 4.5 out of 5 from 7 ratings on Amazon UK 5.00 from 4 ratings on Goodreads
…one feels the author had as much fun writing it, as the young audience will have in reading it.
The Adventures of Amazon Swamp Chicken is a real diamond in the rough.
…the engrossed little face that looked up at me as I read it aloud.
Laugh out loud funny for kids of ALL ages.
This is how children's books are supposed to be.
Author visits and readings
Bring Willow Creek to your school, library or bookshop.
Readings from the Amazon Swamp Chicken books, by a children's author born in Newport, Shropshire. Stories written to be read aloud by parents, and read alone by children. Book week and World Book Day fill up early.
8 to 12the age the books are written for
Newportwhere she was born, in Shropshire
3 booksall of them set in Willow Creek
She visits schools, libraries and bookshops across Shropshire and Telford, Newport, Shrewsbury, Wellington and Market Drayton among them, and travels into Staffordshire and the West Midlands by arrangement.
Thank you, that is with her. She will reply herself with dates and details.
Book four, when it happens.
One short letter when there is a new book, and nothing at all in between.
One email, when there is a fourth book. Every one of them has a way off the list at the bottom.
You are on the list. Which currently has one letter
on it, and that is the way it is going to stay.