“One day, while the Gnome Girl was doing paperwork and the Little Giant was counting his growing pile of trinkets, a limousine drove through the gate of the airfield and out stepped a Grey Man in a grey suit.
‘Who owns this airfield?’ he asked.
‘‘I suppose I do,’ said the Gnome Girl, although she wasn’t completely certain since gnomes, in times past, had relied on trust in their business dealings and didn’t set much store by paperwork.
‘Well,’ said the Grey Man, ‘I have a Lots-o’-dosh plant in the back of my car. If you put it in the vegetable patch it will provide everything you need. And the more you pick the more it grows.’
The Little Giant was very interested in this because the more he grew the more he ate and drank and the more he needed.
‘How much do you want for your plant?’ asked the Gnome Girl doubtfully, remembering that nothing in life is free. Or rather, as her mother used to say, nothing in life is free except everything that really matters.”
The Gnome of Broadfield Down
Written by John Adams with illustrations by Julie Kingcott
A story for older children and adults that connects past and present events on Broadfield Down, currently occupied by Bristol Airport. The Airport has applied to expand its operations across the scheduled historic site and protected nature reserve of Felton Common.
Framed as a folk tale, the story seeks to raise awareness and stimulate discussion within and between different age groups of environmental issues raised by airport expansion.
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The book is available from selected village outlets for £8.99 or direct from jrjadams@gmail.com
Profits from sales of this edition will be donated to the Save Felton Common legal defence fund.
Once, when time moved more slowly than it does today, the birds and butterflies inspired a group of gnomes living on Broadfield Down to build a flying machine. The pilot is Gnome Girl, who is joined on her adventures by the Little Giant. However, things go very wrong when a Grey Man arrives on the scene: