A. R. Dunnett

A.R. Dunnett is the pen name for Alba and Rafa Lopez Dunnett, the children of UK thriller author Gregg Dunnett, and the creators of 'The Hole in Casey's Garden'.

There's a long and complicated story behind the book, and it's detailed in a series of blogposts available at www.greggdunnett.co.uk/caseysgarden

But the short version is this: In 2017 Gregg was faced with having to stop writing for a couple of months in order to look after his children, then 4 and 6, for the summer holiday. But because he was enjoying his writing at that point, he decided to work with the children to create a 'proper' children's story book. Alba suggested a title - 'The Dog that Mooed' and a complicated plot was devised, based around a little girl that lived next to a nuclear farm, where animals were mixed together up by a mad scientist. It told this story in rhyme and it took weeks of rewriting to get the rhymes working smoothly.

At one point in this process Rafa (4) decided he wanted a story too, and at that precise moment (on a campsite, in France) a friend named Casey was talking about how his dad had told him off for digging holes in the garden. Over the course of about ten minutes, The Hole in Casey's Garden was written, and then largely forgotten.

Several months then went by where the rhymes and ideas of The Dog that Mooed were painstakingly worked upon. Illustrators were contacted. Test illustrations drawn (and paid for - ouch).

And then someone helpfully pointed out that 'The Dog that Mooed' was pretty weird, even for a children's book, but 'The Hole in Casey's Garden' was delightful, and every time it was read to children, they loved it.

At this point the gifted and wonderful illustrator Gill Guile came on board, and agreed to make the wonderful images that bring the book to life. The very talented designer Rob Earp spent several weeks assembling the story and the pictures, and assisting with the rather tricky task of printing the book.

Both Alba and Rafa contributed and followed the process in every stage of the writing, illustrating, production and printing of the story, and are now hard at work on two sequels - Rafa's Rocket and Alba and the Underwater Submarine Garden (title still under construction!)