Michael Read

Michael Read was born in Cambridge UK in 1948. Schooled in Cambridge, failing the 11+ but attending a brand new Secondary Modern school in 1959. Attended teacher training at Scraptoft College just outside Leicester 1966-69 and taught at Brunswick Mixed Prinaty School and Fulbourn Juinoir before becoming the Head Teacher of Teversham CE(A) Primary School in 1975 at the tender age of 27. Stayed there for 33 years and retired in 2008.

Started writing in early 2014 for our three granddaughters. The 'snails' came about by accident as stories before were about the granddaughters. I have written over 60 stories since involving Dance, food, culture and celebration. The stories are rather 'safe'; they are not dark and nothing major goes wrong that can't be put right or has a logical negative outcome. When things do go wrong the Thunder Snails come to the rescue!

The more recent creations are Sniffer Snails whom have a vacuum like snout and I invented Penguin Snails from the Falkland Isles.

The stories often explore a moral dilemma or introduce visiting Snails from other cultures or backgrounds. I enjoy researching this. Thank heaven for Google! Which reminds me that at first I had forgotten to include modern technology in the stories such as cameras and phones and gadgets.

I have included a story in Book 2 about Fairies. One of our granddaughters became very confused by being taught about a number of religions at school at the tender age of 6. She declared to her mum that to resolve her confusion she had decided to believe in fairies and so the fairies in the girls' garden appear to them on Middsumer's Eve. She also loves the idea of Unicorns and so I have written her a story of two Unicorn Snails, Uni and Corn visiting the garden.

Calendar Snails follows the UK festivals and Snail Guardian Adventures is all about them. Via three dreams, they visit contrasting venues and learn a great deal about life.

Book 6 returns to the Circle Snails and everyone is two years older so there is some maturity and history to include in the stories. Our youngest granddaughter loves horses so their is a Horse Snail story.

Book 7 looks at supporting people and learning a game & coping if you don’t win. There is also a “green” story and the book closes with a COVID 19 story based in August 2020 when a Circle Snails Fan Club turn up at the Parsley home.

Book 8 will return to the Snail Guardian Adventures theme and will take the Snail Guardians to look into the future.

Visit www.snailguardians.co.uk