Kat and The Hooligoats

Ginger-haired eco-worrier Katherine 'The Kat' Briscoe is convinced that there’s more to the world than people think. After seeing the ghost of a monk in the ruins of the old Priory in Much Wenlock, she loves going there on trips with best-buddy Marcas, hoping to see yet more proof of the supernatural. Unlike her classmates, she even has a sneaky feeling that Santa Claus really does exist. And shortly before her twelfth birthday, life in the small village near Dudley, where she lives with Mom and Pop, changes forever when a mysterious gift materialises, kick-starting her ability to transmogrify at will into a pygmy goat. There are plenty of laughs along the way as she gets to hang out in Pets Corner with the adorable, but infamous, Hooligoats.All becomes as clear as mud when Grandma, who flies in to help Mom, explains that Kat is descended from an ancient, female-only line of genetically modified Icelandic elf. While they set about teaching Kat the ways of their kind, Pop, who sadly is just human, does his best to help by learning Hoolispeak, much to the amusement of the goats.But the frivolity is overshadowed when the police turn up at their house, and there begins a race to find out the answer to one big question: could Kat possibly be the Huldufólk girl with the potential to fulfill The Prophecy and 'harness the power of Mother Earth to defend her people against emerging evils'? Of course, when Mother Earth herself plays hard-to-get, and the evils in question would make Dracula want to cower behind the settee, there may be a high price to pay for the answer.

Before retiring, Barry Hudley worked as an accountant. He's completed a short OU Creative Writing Course, gaining a 94% mark, and also attended a week-long residential ‘work-in-progress’ course with Arvon.