Uncle is the eccentric protagonist in a series of six delightful and eponymous children's books by the English author J. P. Martin and illustrated by Quentin Blake, written and first published in the 1960s. These books have long been out of print and highly desirable by collectors. The first two books in the series were reprinted in a single edition in 2000, The Uncle Stories, which also is no longer in print.
The Titles:
- Uncle - published 1964
- Uncle Cleans Up - published 1965
- Uncle and His Detective - published 1966
- Uncle and the Treacle Trouble - published 1967
- Uncle and Claudius the Camel - published 1969
- Uncle and the Battle for Badgertown - published 1973
From the back cover of the 1982 Sparrow paperback edition of Uncle:
Uncle is a millionaire elephant. He dresses in a purple dressing gown and rides about on a traction engine. His money comes from thousands of dwarfs who live in the top storeys of his house and pay him rent. His life should be an easy one. But his sworn enemies, the dreadful Badfort crowd, led by the frightful Beaver Hateman, are determined to make it a misery.
Uncle's house, Homeward, is even more amazing than Uncle himself. Sold to Uncle by the Wizard Blenkinsop, it is a magical place described as "about a hundred skyscrapers all joined together and surrounded by a moat with a drawbridge over it... The towers are of many colours, and there are bathing pools and gardens among them, also switchback railways running from tower to tower, and water-chutes from top to bottom." Uncle himself does not know the full extent of the rooms, many of which are secret or hidden, or the inhabitants of his home.
Some of Uncle's Friends:
- The Old Monkey
- The One-Armed Badger
- Goodman (a cat)
- Cowgill
- A.B. Fox (a detective, and a fox)
- Claudius the Camel
Uncle's enemies, the Badfort crowd, inhabit a ramshackle fort called, obviously, Badfort. They constantly use intimidation and surreptitious attacks upon Homeward and its inhabitants, trying mainly to embarrass Uncle.
The Badfort Crowd
- Beaver Hateman
- Hootman, a ghost
- Hitmouse, who uses skewers to stab Uncle and his friends
- Jellytussle, a creature covered with quivering jelly
- The Wooden-Legged Donkey
Uncle and his companions like to visit Owl Springs, from which authors (and fellow Uncle fans) Diane Duane and Peter Morwood have taken the name of their collective and web site, the Owl Springs Partnership.