Kate and Oliver's granny goes missing. What they don't know is that, along with all the other grannies in town, she's been kidnapped by a band of evil robbers led by Len the Laugher. He forces them to knit woolly jumpers and socks to sell to shops, and those who can't knit are turned into wax models and sold to shops as dummies. When Kate and Oliver spot their granny and rescue her, she raises a granny army to rescue all the other grannies...and to capture Len.

I'm amazed this one got published at all. The humour is very black and studenty. I probably would never write a story like this now. The Americans had problems with the idea of grannies being turned into wax models and in the end didn't take it. It's the only book I've had a complaint about. It gave one Year 3 boy nightmares about his granny being turned into a wax model. Having said that, it's a favourite for storytelling times. I hated doing the artwork as I'm hopeless at doing human figures. Something to do with skipping all the life drawing classes at college I think. Len the Laugher was modelled on a printer called Len at college who had a loud laugh. Due to the cover design (not my idea) it often got read wrongly as 'The Great Robbery Granny'!

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