Billy Bonkel was an unhappy boy, because nothing exciting ever happened to him. But his greatest problem - which was rare in boys of his age - was that he totally lacked imagination. Most children, especially children like Billy who spend a good deal of time on their own, would make up an imaginary friend or pretend to be someone great, someone special, a pirate, a spaceman or a secret detective. Not so with Billy Bonkel; Billy was just Billy - bored Billy, boring Billy, unhappy Billy.

Another problem for Billy was that he didn’t have any friends. This was partly because his family were farmers who lived in a farmhouse miles away from anyone else and partly because he found playing with other children far too boring. It was always ‘Let’s pretend this and let’s pretend that,’ and Billy could not see the point of this at all.

Little did Billy know it, but things were about to change dramatically. On a fine sunny day in May when he was walking alone through the woods to the north of Bonkel Farm, minding his own business, it suddenly happened! A multi-coloured light shone through the trees directly in front of him, making him trip over a yew tree root and fall headlong into a hollow on the other side. He rolled over and over until he finally came to a stop by bumping his head on a large round stone. All went dark.

The next thing that Billy knew was that he was spinning round and round, as if he was being sucked into the very centre of the earth. If he had possessed any sort of imagination he might have thought of something more interesting, like being close to the eye of a tornado. As it was, all Billy wondered was whether he was dreaming or not.