This is a comic tale about a would-be highwayman and his four faithful animal friends. When Tod is captured by the Bow Street Runners, it is left to his animal friends, with some help from kindly Parson Appletree, to try to save him from the hangman's noose. The author also wrote "The Sheep Pig", winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Award and "Tumbleweed". He was also the creator of "Tumbledown Farm", a television programme. Ian Newsham illustrated "Noah's Brother", "Tumbleweed" and "Keeping Henry". He is a lecturer in illustration at Leicester Polytechnic.