A new book of verse, out now
Cautionary Tales for the Modern Child
Eighteen warnings, in rhyme, for anyone under the age of a hundred.
Hilaire Belloc warned children about lying, slamming doors and chewing string. He never said a word about tablets at the dinner table, endless group chats, or pressing “Buy Now” at two in the morning. Ken Trevena has put that right.
Meet the children
They were warned. They did not listen.
Amélie
Sucked two fingers until she grew the teeth of a horse.
Cameron
Mined and crafted day and night, until he ended up in the garden wall.
Clementine
Clicked “I Agree” without reading a word, and was promptly acquired by a firm in Shenzhen.
Jasper
Last seen drifting over Basingstoke as a small pink cloud, smelling faintly of bubblegum.
…and fourteen more, each illustrated in the spirit of the Edwardian originals.
Not enough? Meet Rosamund, who was wired into the kitchen wall. Get her bonus tale free.
New for Christmas · Ages 3–10
Hamish the Wee Christmas Tree
One mixed-up label. Ten years at sea. Seven Wonders of the World!
Hamish is a wee Scots pine from Rumster Forest in the far north of Scotland. He is meant to be the Christmas tree at the Fishermen’s Mission in Greenock, but a gust of wind flips his label and he is swung aboard the steamship SS Salween, bound for Rangoon. With his friend Angus, the ginger-bearded ship’s steward, he sails around the world to the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, Petra, the Colosseum, Christ the Redeemer, Machu Picchu and Chichén Itzá.
Read it, then colour it! In the Story & Colouring Book, every illustrated story page has its own colour-in picture on the facing page. There is also a story-only paperback and a Kindle edition.
About the author
Ken Trevena is the Umpteenth Laird of Camster. Nobody is quite sure how many Lairds came before him, and Ken prefers it that way.
He lives deep in the Northamptonshire countryside with two Dachshunds, Frankie and Monty, who are in charge, and a collection of horses, cows, sheep, chickens and rats, who are not. He is a thinker of the wonderfully sideways sort, and once looked at an ordinary afternoon and invented Cross Country Croquet.
He read Belloc to his own children when they were small. Cautionary Tales and Hamish the Wee Christmas Tree are his first books for children.
Consider yourself warned
Available now from Amazon in paperback and on Kindle.