Once upon a time, in the back of Beyond, there lived a crotchety old woman. Her name was Prunella Grinrod. Prunella was a bad tempered, ill mannered rake of a woman with an unruly thatch of thick frizzy white hair, sharp suspicious eyes and an angry scowling mouth. She dressed in the most unusual way, a tatty old green ball gown, cut to the shins with a set of garden shears, odd gloves (one striped one plain) without fingers and clomping black Wellington boots! Prunella’s house was large, wooden and rickety. When the weather turned, rushing back through the forest in huge ferocious gusts of billowing wind, the house would creak and groan along with the tall trees which surrounded it. Tucked away under the splintering porch there crouched a scrappy black and white cat named Solitude, who often took shelter and hunted mice, all the while keeping its one good eye on Prunella. Meanwhile, once upon the very same time, at the front of Beyond, there lived …