Life is not safe for the other animals, as the villainous Highway Rat gallops along the highway, stealing their food. Clover from a rabbit; nuts from a squirrel - he even steals his own horse's hay. Will he finally meet his comeuppance, in the form of a cunning duck?
Axel says:
Dressed-up rodents are, unlike horses, one of my favourite things to draw. I like the silliness of this hero - who is for once a baddie. The scale of horse and rat and the animals is of course completely unrealistic, but picture books have their own logic and anything is possible. Somebody spotted that the Highway Rat had two swords on the cover - a mistake overlooked by me and the editor, that has now been corrected.
Layout sketches