Birthdays and Other Stories was published by Collins Press in September 2000. It has 4 true-to-life stories for 4-8-yr-olds, charmingly illustrated.

Extract from The New Bicycle

Frank had wanted to be friendly with Niall, but had given up long ago because Niall was always so unkind to him and called him such cruel names. He could not understand why Niall didn’t like him and sometimes it upset him very much as it did right now.

Frank went into the shop and bought the messages for his mother. He had to get a loaf of bread, a pint of milk and some apples. When he came out and put them in the basket in front of his bicycle, he found that the air had been let out of the tyres. As he realised what had happened, tears began to roll down his cheeks.

"Cry-baby, cry-baby," Niall Murphy called to Frank, peeping at him from around the corner. Then he disappeared again, laughing gleefully.