by Guy Bass
“I hate to be a bother-knot but do I not get a say in this?” asked Skeleton Keys.
“Nope,” said Daisy, pushing past him to get to the drawer. “And from now on, maybe you should let me do the talking…” She looked back at Ben for just a moment, and then hopped into the drawer and disappeared. Skeleton Keys let out a long sigh.
“Crumcrinkles, why not? Perhaps even Ol’ Mr Keys could do with a friend,” he said, throwing his arms in the air. “Very well then! A new tale begins – the adventures of Skeleton Keys and Daisy. A hum-dum-dinger in the making…”
With that, the skeleton disappeared into his Doorminion, and the drawer slammed shut.
So there we have it, dallywanglers! The truly unbelievable, unbelievably true tale of Ben’s unimaginary friends. Did I not tell you it was a hum-dum-dinger? Action, intrigue, suspense and just enough hugging to remind us there is good in the world.
Of course, I did end up lumbered with Daisy. I cannot pretend it has been a butter-smooth ride thus far – she has a lot of demands, and does tend to set fire to my shoes – but I do believe her heart is in the right place … even if her head is facing the wrong way.
Well, Ol’ Mr Keys’ work is never done – I already feel another twitch in my bones. Who knows where it will lead? Perhaps to a tale so truly unbelievable that it must, unbelievably, be true. For it has been said, and it cannot be denied, that strange things can happen when imaginations run wild…
Until next time, until next tale, farewell!
Your servant in storytelling,
—SK
WANT TO FIND OUT ABOUT SKELETON KEYS’ NEXT ADVENTURE?
Greetings! To waffleboggers, figswindlers and joustabouts! To the imaginary and the unimaginary! To the living, the dead and everyone in between, my name is Keys … Skeleton Keys.
A long time ago and not at all recently, I was an IF – an imaginary friend. But by some wonder of wild imagining, I suddenly became as real as sticks! I had become unimaginary. Now, with these fantabulant fingers I can open doors to anywhere – hidden worlds … secret places … doors to the limitless realm of the imagination.
Today, I keep a watchful eye socket upon the recently unimagined wherever they appear. And each unimagining has led to an adventure that would make a head spin from its neck! The stories I could tell you…
But of course, stories are why you’re here! Well, brace yourself, because I have a hum-dum-dinger of a tale set to send your thoughts running for cover. A story so truly unbelievable that it must, unbelievably, be true.
Our story begins many moons ago in Haggard Hall – a great, looming shadow of a house far from anywhere. In this house there lived a boy. He was alone, with no one to care for him and only his wild imagination for company. Haggard Hall was as lonely as darkness and so the boy imagined he had a friend to keep him company. He named his IF Mumbo Jumbo, for a fantabulant friend – however imaginary – deserves a fantabulant name. Mumbo Jumbo was a marvellous magical man, chock-brimming with flabbergasting spells and tricks, and he made the boy feel altogether less alone.
Then, one fate-filled, moonish night the boy imagined his friend so wildly and so well that something rather remarkable happened – Mumbo Jumbo became as real as teeth!
The magical man’s spells and tricks were even more flabbergasting in real life, and all he cared about was making the boy happier than Christmas.
But the boy was not happy. You see, despite the house being big enough for both of them – big enough for a hundred Mumbo Jumbos – the boy realized he did not like sharing it. He did not like sharing the shadows and the silence. He wanted to be alone again.
But once an IF is unimagined, he cannot be un-unimagined – and so the boy banished Mumbo Jumbo from Haggard Hall. The marvellous magical man begged the boy to let him stay but his pleas fell upon deaf ears. At last, Mumbo Jumbo vanished in a puff of sadness, and was gone.
In time, the boy grew into a man, and the man into an old man. He had a family but still he did not learn to share. Every day, he would remind his own flesh and blood that he would much rather be alone.
I am sure you are cram-bursting at the seams to be introduced to the boy that became known as Old Man Moon! But alas, like a winged cow, it is impossible, for there is one thing I have not told you…
Old Man Moon is quite dead.
Only his granddaughter, Luna, is sorry to see him go. But perhaps the old man’s story is not over yet. For strange things can happen when imaginations run wild…
Guy Bass is an award-winning author and semi-professional geek. He has written over thirty books, including the best-selling Stitch Head series (which has been translated into sixteen languages) Dinkin Dings and the Frightening Things (winner of a 2010 Blue Peter Book Award) Spynosaur, Laura Norder: Sheriff of Butts Canyon, Noah Scape Can’t Stop Repeating Himself, Atomic! and The Legend of Frog.
Guy has previously written plays for both adults and children. He lives in London with his wife and imaginary dog. Find out more at guybass.com
Pete Williamson is a self-taught artist and illustrator. He is best known for the much-loved Stitch Head series by Guy Bass, and the award-winning The Raven Mysteries by Marcus Sedgwick. Pete has illustrated over sixty-five books by authors including Francesca Simon, Matt Haig and Charles Dickens. Before that he worked as a designer in an animation company (while daydreaming about being a children’s book illustrator).
Pete now lives in rural Kent with a big piano, a writer wife and a dancing daughter. Find out more at petewilliamson.co.uk
BEHIND THE SCENES OF SKELETON KEYS
Guy gives us the lowdown on the characters … with some help from Pete’s early sketches…
How did Skeleton Keys come to life?
The name came first … then most of the bones, then the keys, then a few more bones. I liked the idea of a skeleton with keys for fingers, who lived in a dimension filled with an infinite number of doors. His keys could literally take him anywhere on earth and beyond.
Did you have a particular look in mind for Ben?
My description was fairly loose – I just wanted Ben to have a bowl of black hair. Pete sent a few sketches through and one of them just was Ben. It was exactly as I imagined him.
And how did Daisy end up with a backwards head?
I had an action figure of a character from the Twilight Zone TV show that had its leg put on the wrong way round, and that gave me the idea for a girl with a backwards head. I wanted her to look pretty unsettling at first glance. Not that Daisy is bothered about her appearance – she’s much more worried about being forgotten.
And how did the Gorblimey evolve into such a friendly-looking monster?
I always imagined the Gorblimey as looking like a hairy, jet-black shadow but I originally saw him as a towering monster. Pete sent through a sketch showing Skeleton Keys, Ben and the Gorblimey side by side and the Gorblimey was smaller – only a little taller than Ben. Suddenly he was much more appealing, so I rewrote the story to match.
Copyright
STRIPES PUBLISHING LIMITED
An imprint of the Little Tiger Group
1 Coda Studios, 189 Munster Road,
London SW6 6AW
A paperback original First published in Great Britain in 2019
Text copyright © Guy Bass, 2019
Illustrations copyright © Pete Williamson, 2019
eISBN: 978–1–78895–142–5
The right of Guy Bass and Pete Williamson to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed upon the subsequent purchaser.
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