Susan & Bill

Nine year old Susan Brooks and eleven year old Bill Starbright live next door to each other on a new estate in the Midlands, called One Tree Hill. They are good friends and have lots of gentle adventures together. Their home and many of the places they visit have not been matched to real locations but it is becoming clear that Guildford, where Malcolm Saville was living when he began the series, is a major inspiration. The illustrations for the first six books are by Ernest (Winnie the Pooh) Shepard. Saville and Shepard were friends and it is easy to imagine them tramping round the local countryside looking for sites that would feature in both the story and the illustrations.