The Eric & Wally stories

St Erin's churchyard at golden hour: the square church tower, a dark green water butt with a white football wedged behind it, and the school sports field beyond the wall.
Book cover: Eric and Wally on an ivy-covered wall beside a lane, watching children play football on the school field in autumn, with Nanny Joan and her shopping trolley at the gate, beneath carved wooden signboards reading Eric the Snail and the Ball Behind the Butt, Trevor H. Field.

The newest story

The Ball Behind the Butt

A Saturday morning in September, a brand-new football kicked a very long way, and one small, bright idea.

Start readingAll the stories

The first five pages are free

Eric the snail and Wally the worm on the cellar flagstones below a low shelf of little cloth-bound books, by lantern light.

Every one began at bedtime.

Told aloud by Trevor in the 1990s. Thirty years later, Eric and Wally are ready to share their stories with the world. Find the library below.

Where the stories came from

Come in earlyRead the first one free

The first five pages of every book are free · Members’ things open when Elmsham opens fully. Families who join in these early days get their first month free.

Plot 27 on the Elmsham allotments at golden hour: half-dug rows of potatoes, a carved sign reading Plot 27, a badger run under the hedge and the shed beyond.
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 1

Misplaced Potatoes

Potatoes go missing from Plot 27.

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Free to read

The Fieldhaven seafront as the tide turns: a green leaf beached at the waterline, the jetty and the red and white lighthouse, and a large dark shape under the water far out.
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.

Book 2

Shadow in the Sea

A day at Fieldhaven, a leaf for a boat, and something very large moving under the water.

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The first five pages are free

Kettlewell Forest at moonrise: a little shelter of leaves and sticks in the root of an oak, glowing warm from inside, and two pale eyes watching from deep in the trees.
Book cover: Eric and Wally at the mouth of a shelter of leaves and sticks built into an oak root, lit warm from inside on a moonlit night, with two pale eyes watching from the dark trees behind, beneath carved wooden signboards reading Eric the Snail and the Thing in the Trees, Trevor H. Field.

Book 3

The Thing in the Trees

A night under the trees at Kettlewell, a shelter built of leaves, and something moving in the dark that neither of them can name.

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The first five pages are free

Madisle Green during the summer fête: bunting and striped stalls, the great oak with an old crow on a low branch, and a small glint of silver in the grass.
Book cover: Eric and Wally look up from the grass at a crow perched on an oak branch, with bunting, stall canopies and a church tower behind them at the Madisle fete, beneath carved wooden signboards reading Eric the Snail and the Watch at Madisle Fete, Trevor H. Field.

Book 4

The Watch at Madisle Fête

A summer fete on Madisle Green, a silver pocket watch gone from a coat pocket, and a crow watching from the oak.

Start reading

The first five pages are free

St Erin's churchyard at golden hour: the square church tower, a dark green water butt with a white football wedged behind it, and the school sports field beyond the wall.
Book cover: Eric and Wally on an ivy-covered wall beside a lane, watching children play football on the school field in autumn, with Nanny Joan and her shopping trolley at the gate, beneath carved wooden signboards reading Eric the Snail and the Ball Behind the Butt, Trevor H. Field.

Book 5

The Ball Behind the Butt

A Saturday morning in September, a brand-new football kicked a very long way, and one small, bright idea.

Start reading

The first five pages are free