The hit the headlines across the islands earlier this year, now a story about two Jersey schoolboys turned superheroes is making waves across the UK.
Meet HammerHead and Captain StinkyPants was written by Colin Macleod, the Chief Executive Officer of The Channel Islands Co-operative Society.
The story follows the adventures of his two sons Harris and Lewis as they are whisked off to a secret land and transformed into superheroes, HammerHead and Captain StinkyPants. The adventure was created by Mr Macleod and his sons as part of their bedtime routine.
After putting the books on sale in island Co-op stores, demand meant £10,000 was soon raised for good causes Help a Guernsey Child and the Jersey branch of children’s charity Variety.
But now the story is going on sale in Co-op stores up and down the UK.
Colin said: “Taking the nonsense we had created at bedtime and turning it into a book was a way of preserving that time I had with my children while also raising money to make a real difference to children in the islands who were less fortunate than my own”
“Although The Channel Islands Co-operative Society is independent and owned by our members across Jersey and Guernsey, we have close links with the Co-op in the UK and news started to spread about what I had been up to.”
14,000 have been distributed, but there’s one slight different to the first run of books: they include a review from writer, broadcaster and former MP Gyles Brandreth, to whom Colin had sent a copy of the book when it was originally published.
Gyles wrote: “Meet HammerHead and Captain StinkyPants is HUGE FUN – and more to the point, my grandson Rory, aged 10, thinks it is GARGANTUAN FUN. And Rory knows his superheroes… A superheroic superbook! Bravo!”
That review came as quite a shock to Colin: “I couldn’t believe he had not only taken the time to read it but he had shared it with his grandson and then taken the time to send me a review.”
“The community is at the heart of the Co-op and so, as we did in the Channel Islands with Help A Guernsey Child and Variety, the stores in each of the regions have chosen charities which they feel deserve recognition and support. Those charities include the Samaritans in Scotland, The Salvation Army and St Andrew’s Hospice in Lincoln and Little Havens Children’s Hospice in Essex.”
