About 25 or so years ago, in the days when computers were just beginning to be invented, I was on holiday in Shropshire with my son, who was 7 and a half years old. He had just got his first computer, an Acorn and he loved playing games on it and finding out about robots.
One morning we were walking on the top of Offa’s Dyke which divides England and Wales and is very, very old. I found myself telling Sam the strange and wonderful adventure of Alex and the Wygnets, who were the creatures that used to live under the Dyke – and probably still do. When we got home I wrote the story into a book and he began to draw and colour the pictures of the Wygnets' story.
Then, one day I put the book away.
Then, another day, Sam grew up. He made a robot himself and eventually got an MSc in Artificial Intelligence.
Not long ago I opened a drawer and found The Wygnets of Woffa's Dyke staring up at me and the Wygnet creatures inside the book said "Get us out of here! It’s time you took us stuck in this book in this drawer out into the world!"
So I did and here it is.
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