Tony and Anne Bishop live on a grazing property in the Upper Hunter Valley of NSW where Tony has lived all his life and Anne for most of hers. Their house is surrounded by a large romantic garden, which has provided inspiration and themes for their children’s stories. Anne spends a great deal of time happily in her garden with, for many years, the constant companionship of one or more Cavalier King Charles spaniels.

While Anne and Tony cannot be absolutely certain about the fairies of the garden, the animals mentioned in the stories are either permanent residents in the garden or visitors to it. Dogs, ducks, guinea fowl, peacocks, turtles, lizards and many native birds permanently live there, while kangaroos, wallabies, echidnas, foxes, possums, snakes, goannas, rabbits, rats, mice make frequent appearances and a platypus and a wombat, very infrequent ones.

So, there is a measure of realism in the stories. The behaviour of small dogs and their wilful disobedience; the habits of goannas, turtles, birds, rabbits, mice and rats; the dangers from predators and from flash floods are all grounded in reality... while fantasy, humorous illustrations and rhyming narrative add joy and fun to the stories.

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