Hello.

You’ve probably gathered that I’m not Barley Hay. He’s busy right now, off doing very important things, so he’s asked me to stand in for a while. He’s also a modest person who prefers to keep a low profile.

However, notwithstanding that, I’m here to tell you that this is the site of Barley Hay who. amongst other things, is an author, illustrator and musician. I’m not here to tell you about his music, which is another story altogether. I’m here to tell you about how Barley Hay came to write a book about bears called Every Bear Has Stories, which he started writing about 10 years ago.

He has had an affinity with bears since he was a young boy. His childhood memories of bears go back to when his Grandmother acquired a white bear who lived in the front office of the family’s coal business, near London, England.

Many years later he would bring imagination to life when searching for bears with his young daughter as they walked along tree-lined tracks in King’s Park.

In 1990 he re-discovered his love for bears in December, just before Christmas when searching for something special for his newfound love. Over the years, he and his partner imagined the personalities and characters of the many bears that came into their lives.

In fact, most of the stories are about the bears who came into their lives. They are known as The Man and the Lady in the book. In the book you will meet Frankie (that’s me by the way), Barney (who has three stories would you believe), Howie, and many others who will share some of their stories with you. The bears are lovable, a little mischievous, innovative, bring joy to everyone, and reflect the innocence of childhood. This is not to forget, Dog, Owl, Duck and Squirrel of course, even if they’re not bears, but they are good friends and we all need good friends.

Thank you for dropping by.

You are welcome to leave a comment, which will hopefully be a nice one because we do not like nasty comments.

In the meantime, I must get back to The Bear Times.

I’ll let Barley know you dropped by.