When I was growing up, one of our family's favourite pastimes was listening to Dad tell stories about his life. He often admitted they were embellished. So what was fact became blurred in the magic of the stories that he told.

There was always a strong undertone in his stories to deliver life lessons to us, while keeping us completely engaged with his humour and expression.

When I was about four years old, I said to my dad, "Daddy, please tell me another story from your mouth".

From that day on, Daddy’s stories became known as "Words from Daddy’s mouth".

Dad had so many stories that he had to create a list to remember them all (at last count the list was over 400). So over time a game developed where we would choose a number from this list. Whatever story related to the number chosen would be the story Dad would tell.

Stories were usually told as the last part of the wind down of an evening, sitting together in our bedroom or on a lounge chair. But we would also enjoy listening any time and any place.

I hope you enjoy sharing my books with your children.