The Royal Oswald Inn at dusk seen from the lane, windows lit and wisteria around the door, with Eric very small on the stone doorstep.

Where Eric and Wally came from

Told aloud in the 1990s. Written down thirty years later.

Eric the snail and Wally the worm close together on the cellar flagstones by one candle, wide-eyed, listening to a story.

My dad made them up.

His name is Trevor H. Field. In the early 1990s he told my sister and me stories at bedtime about a snail called Eric and a worm called Wally. My sister is three years older than me, so she heard them first. By the time I can remember anything, they were already there.

A damp garden border after rain, full of ordinary snails on the leaves and worms in the soil, with Eric the snail and Wally the worm among them.

There were snails and worms all over the garden when my family moved in, and my sister used to collect them to keep them safe. That is why it was a snail and a worm. He picked the name Eric at random. Wally was a man he worked with who was, he says, a bit of a worm.

Eric the snail and Wally the worm by a candle in the cellar, Wally thrilled, while the shadows of a bottle, a rope and a bundle of herbs on the wall look like a fin in the waves and dark trees.

Some nights he made a new one up as he went. Some nights I asked for the same one again, the way children do. He says that at that point in his career, bedtime was probably the most time he was able to spend with us. On the long drives to the Lake District for our holidays, he told them in the car.

Every story started in the cellar of an old inn. Eric was slow and thought things through. Wally was the silly one. I liked the frightening ones best, with sharks in the sea and monsters in the woods.

Page 1 of 16 of Alex’s school book. The cover: Eric the Snail & Wally the Worm. Signed ALEX FIELD. Drawing: Eric and Wally waving, in a white circle.
Page 2 of 16 of Alex’s school book. Eric the Snail lived in a cozy pub cellar. Drawing: A cellar with stone walls, steps, and two barrels marked BEER and ALE.
Page 11 of 16 of Alex’s school book. But suddenly a shark was chasing them so Harry turned round and sped back to the shore! The shark kept chasing them! Drawing: The shark chasing the leaf boat.
Page 16 of 16 of Alex’s school book. The back of the book: “This is goodbye from Eric and Wally, but we will be back, so don’t you worry!”

Nobody wrote them down. I tried once, for an English project at school when I was about twelve, and got twenty out of twenty and a merit! The teacher wrote that it was “an excellent piece of work (though perhaps not your most creative!)”. After that, nothing for a long time.

See all sixteen pages

The birthday books

In April 2026 my dad had a big birthday. What do you buy an old timer? I thought it would be nice to bring the world he made to life, so I made him two books: the first versions of Eric the Snail and the Misplaced Potatoes and Shadow in the Sea.

Book cover: Eric and Wally in the soil among dug potatoes on the allotment, a mother badger and two cubs peering over them, the Plot 27 marker at the right, beneath carved wooden signboards reading Eric the Snail and the Misplaced Potatoes, Trevor H. Field.Book cover: Wally and Eric riding a green leaf through splashing waves, a dark fin in the water behind them and a lighthouse on the headland, beneath carved wooden signboards hanging from a jetty post, reading Eric the Snail and the Shadow in the Sea, Trevor H. Field.

He knew what they were straight away.

“I was amazed and emotional to see that so much thought and effort had been put in to create physical books based on my imaginations from many years earlier,” he says. “It was only then that I realised they had meant something and had been remembered.”

I gave copies to my nephew. A few friends read them to their children. They all wanted more, so I started writing more.

Eric the snail and Wally the worm on the stone step outside the Royal Oswald's cellar door in early morning light, setting out.

Who’s in them

Eric and Wally are my dad’s creations, as close as I can remember them. Every book still starts in the cellar, because his always did. Shadow in the Sea is based on the story I asked for most.

Nanny Joan pausing at the allotment gate with her shopping trolley, seen from behind and below, with Eric and Wally watching from the path in the foreground.

Nanny Joan is my nan, my dad’s mum. She was a spectacular nan. In the books she says very little and looks after two small creatures without any fuss. I put her in because she deserves to be everyone’s nan.

One of the children in the village is based on my nephew, who is curious about everything and careful with anything small, especially bugs.

A map of Elmsham built as a miniature model: the Royal Oswald Inn, The Field Allotments, Madisle Green and the great oak, Kettlewell Forest, Bramble Wood, and the road down to Fieldhaven on the coast

The village is built from names we love. The Royal Oswald Inn is named after my dog. Fieldhaven is based on our family name. The rest are friends and family, if you know where to look.

Trevor H. Field telling a story on a bench at the Elmsham allotments, his son Alex beside him writing in a notebook, with Eric the snail and Wally the worm listening between them.
My dad and I in the world he created

How they’re made

The stories, the characters and the ideas are ours. Before retiring, my dad worked in the printing industry, so he is the editor and the proofreader.

There are two of us. I have a few hours a week and he has a few hours a month. We would love a room full of illustrators, animators and narrators, but we haven’t got one. So I use AI tools to help me write the stories up, picture them and read them aloud. Nothing goes out until we have checked it and changed it by hand, usually many times. You should see the folder of pictures that didn’t make it!

Eric's little desk in the cellar buried in crumpled and stacked drawings, Wally the worm half under them and enjoying it, Eric the snail studying one sheet very seriously.

Why

They are slower and quieter than most things made for children now, and that is on purpose. I want them to be calm and comforting, and still a good story. I would like a child to fall asleep and dream about planting vegetables, running on the sand and climbing trees. And then ask for the next one.

Eric the snail and Wally the worm beside a newly planted seedling at Plot 27, a trowel standing in the soil.
Wally the worm racing across the sand at Fieldhaven leaving a wiggly track, with Eric the snail following behind on a slow straight one.
Eric the snail and Wally the worm high on a branch of the great oak on Madisle Green, the green small and far below.
Eric the snail and Wally the worm fast asleep in their matchbox bed in the cellar, the candle burnt down and moonlight coming through the grating.

Eric and Wally have always been part of our family. It would be nice if they became part of yours.

Alex

Eric the snail at a little desk in the lantern-lit cellar, reading over a letter he has just finished, a pencil and an envelope beside it, with Wally the worm watching.