Alec Apostrophe 'as always 'ad an 'abit of droppin' letters from 'is speech. Though 'e only 'as one eye 'e's cap'n of a fishin' boat. ' E's quite sensitive and can't bear to see 'imself put in the wrong place ( such as on notices and in shop windows ).

Author Biography

Barbara Cooper, creator of the Puncs, spent 3 years as a feature-writer on Woman before becoming a freelance in 1957. She was sent by Everybody's Weekly to Nigeria to write about a BOAC ' Lollipop Special ' for ex-pat children coming to school in the UK. This inspired her first book in 1959, The BOAC Book of Flight (for children), which was successful enough for BOAC to ask her to come up with an idea similar to Pan Am's World Travel. Thus was born in 1962 The BOAC Traveller's Digest and her close relationship with the airline lasting more than 25 years (the last 2 being with the merged BOAC / BEA organisation). She rented an office in the BOAC building and formed Threshold Books to produce a series of booklets called BOAC Regional Guides which covered all the airline's on-line points. Eventually there were some 50 guides produced as well as a series for the BOAC Junior Jet Club chronicling the adventures of a friendly Jumbo Jet called Dilbert. During the late 60s, driven by her passion for horse trials, she wrote and published the first book on Badminton and initiated a sponsored annual series called the Midland Bank Horse Trials Handbook. It also led to an association lasting 26 years with the Pony Club, developing and producing all their publications. A series of booklets teaching young riders the basics of riding called the Compass Pony Guides are still popular today. General titles produced during this period were The Royal Ballet: the First 50 Years, The Royal Office of Master of the Horse, the first book on Burghley Horse Trials, Olympic Three-Day Event; Los Angeles '84 and books with Ginny Holgate and Mark Todd.