With this first book in Russell Brand’s Trickster Tales series, the famed comedian, actor, and bestselling author delivers a hilarious retelling of an old fairytale favorite that will appeal to adults and children alike. Once upon a time, long ago, in a time that seemed, to those present, exactly like now except their teeth weren’t so clean and more things were wooden, there was a town called Hamelin. The people of Hamelin were a pompous bunch who loved themselves and their town so much that if it were possible they would have spent all day zipped up in a space suit smelling their own farts. But space suits hadn’t been invented yet so they couldn’t. Then one day without warning a gang of rats bowled into the town and began causing a right rumpus… So begins Russell Brand’s wildly funny and surprisingly wise retelling of the classic tale The Pied Piper of Hamelin. Whether you’re a kid or a grown-up kid, you’ll be chuckling the whole way through this zany story that bypasses Brand’s more adult humor for the outrageous, the madcap, and the just plain silly. Maybe you’ve heard about the Pied Piper before, with his strange music and those pompous townspeople and pesky rats. Or maybe you haven’t. But one thing is for sure: you’ve never heard it quite like this.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin - A Child's Story. The Pied Piper of Hamelin is the title character of a legend from the town of Hamelin, Lower Saxony, Germany. The legend dates back to the Middle Ages, the earliest references describing a piper, dressed in multicolored ("pied") clothing, who was a rat-catcher hired by the town to lure rats away with his magic pipe. When the citizens refuse to pay for this service, he retaliates by using his instrument's magical power on their children, leading them away as he had the rats. This version of the story spread as folklore and has appeared in the writings of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the Brothers Grimm, and Robert Browning, among others.

Pied Piper is set in Nazi-occupied France during World War II. The story follows John Howard, an elderly Englishman who is on holiday in France when the war breaks out. He decides to help evacuate several children to safety in England, but as he journeys through the countryside with the children, he faces many dangers and challenges. Along the way, he meets various people who are also trying to escape the war, and he forms deep bonds with the children in his care. Ultimately, John's determination and kindness help him and the children to reach safety, but not without facing difficult decisions and heart-wrenching losses. The novel is a moving portrayal of the human cost of war and the resilience of the human spirit.

The Pied Piper pipes the village free of rats, and when the villagers refuse to pay him for the service he exacts a terrible revenge.

Set against the devastation that was France after Dunkirk, this is the story of a strange journey. The characters are a seventy-year-old Englishman, a young and beautiful French girl, and a group of children of various nationalities. When John Howard decides to end his holiday in the Jura Mountains, knowing nothing about the crumbling of the western front, he agrees to escort two young English children across France and home to England. The children are excited at the prospect of fresh experiences--and the man is worried that he has accepted a task that he is not well-fitted to fulfill. The journey starts. At first it is fun. But very soon the war makes itself felt. Trains have stopped--busses are being attacked--roads are choked with refugees. And John Howard takes on heavier responsibilities as his little band grows, child after child, mile after mile. At Chartres fate brings him surprising aid in the person of Nicole, who will help him on toward Brest. The children, to whom John Howard is father and mother combined, play about him quite undaunted by the tragic scenes. But travel becomes more difficult and hazardous, the danger of discovery greater--until their arrival at the coast and the realization of their worst fears. It is then that the courage of the old Englishman is put to the severest test. --