The Queen's Nose

Story

Harmony really wants a pet of her own but her parents won’t let her. In fact she loves animals so much that she sees people as them – her father is a sea lion, her mother a pigeon and her sister, Melody, a Siamese cat. Uncle Ginger is a grizzly bear and it is Uncle Ginger who introduces her to the Queen’s Nose, a very usual 50p piece which grants wishes if you rub the Queen’s nose. Harmony, however, discovers that not all wishes are what they seem and you must be careful what you wish for…

Why we chose it

A story about wishing with gentle humour and a great main character – much loved both as a book and as a television series.

Where it came from

As a child Dick King Smith has a large collection of pets and went on to become a farmer which he saw as a natural progression from pet keeping. His love of animals is shown in all his books.

He often wrote his stories in the 6 weeks of the summer holidays while he was a teacher, until he became a writer full time.

Where it went next

In 1995 The Queen’s Nose became a very popular television series, adapted by Steve Attridge, which went on to run for seven series. At the end of series 3 Harmony threw the coin into a lake to give another child the chance to use it and the story then continued with two other children finding and then passing on the coin.

Associated stories

Dick King-Smith wrote over 130 books. His first The Fox Busters was published in 1978. Other popular titles include Martin’s Mice, Harriet’s Hare, The Crowstarver, Harry’s Mad, The Water Horse, Magnus Powermouse and the series of books about Sophie, a little girl who is determined to be a farmer.

The other Dick King-Smith books in our 1001 are The Sheep-Pig (1983) and The Hodgeheg (1987).