The Third Leader: Never never land

Some books, if they are very good books, and tell terrific tales (but in a nice way, boys and girls!) get a sequel. Sometimes it is written by the awfully clever lady or gentleman who who came up with the awfully clever idea. Sometimes, though, that lady or gentleman might not be available, having popped their clogs.

And this is how it is with Peter Pan in Scarlet, in which Geraldine McCaughrean, a very good children's writer, children, has, in a very good cause, resumed the story of the boy who doesn't even have any clogs, and his old friends, such as Wendy, and given them some new friends, including a male fairy.

And because this is how it is with books, too, I shouldn't be surprised if some similar ideas, although not necessarily in such a good cause, were shooting around the Frankfurt Book Fair even now. The one in which Noddy grows up to be a Top Gear presenter was looking a bit dodgy for a while back there, but is now believed to be back on track.

Here is a selection of proposed titles which might also spark some interest:

Robin Hoodie; The Black Whatever; Celebrity Treasure Island; Peter Rabbit Takes Out a Contract; Wind Turbine in the Willows; Biggles Flies a Desk; Biggles Flies Budget; The Scarlet Pimp; Big Women; William and the Weapons of Mass Destruction; Violet Bott, Love Goddess; Mowgli, Strip Miner; Now We Are Better: How An Enlightened Therapeutic Regime Dealt with Some Issues in the Hundred Acre Wood, including obesity, anxiety, ADHD and clinical depression.

And now I must fly.