Bramble and Coultoon are two fire-making ponies who love adventures. By now their fame has spread before them and a certain Mr McEnvy is anxious to get rid of them. He cunningly lays them a trap knowing their keen sense of adventure. He tells them about a cave far off on the rocky wild coast of Islay and of a piper who can still be heard playing his pipes in the cave. Of course the ponies cannot resist. When they get to the cave, they are told by a friendly stag that the piper had a dog who came out of the cave with all of his hair burnt off. They almost give up but curiosity gets the better of them. They discover the piper who asks for their help. They all come out of the cave alive, and there is a funny and happy ending which involves the Islay Pipe Band.

 

There are 32 pages in this book. This is a picture book. A picture book uses pictures and text to tell the story. The number of words varies from zero ('wordless') to around 1k over 32 pages. Picture books are typically aimed at young readers (age 3-6) but can also be aimed at older children (7+). This book was published 2014 by AILSAPRESS .

CATHERINE WILSON lives on the island of Islay. She began her writing career when she was teaching at Secondary Schools in East Africa. Later she worked for the BBC and became the author of educational texts. She has collaborated with Ruth on several children's books all published by Ailsapres, which she helped to found in 2007. She has also trained as an artist and the line drawings in the margins of the text are hers. RUTH MACLEAN was born and raised in Toronto, and trained in Fine Art and Theology. From early childhood she has been familiar with the Tom Thomson territory in Ontario where her Scottish forebears first settled. Like Tom Thomson before her, she has always drawn inspiration from nature. She loves to paint and draw landscape, also to spin and dye wool with plants. She honours nature with her earth-spirit dolls and other sacred pieces. Catherine Wilson, author of the Bramble and Coultoon series, is also the founder of Ailsapress, a small independent publishing company based on the island of Islay. Ailsapress publishes works of local island interest.