The Uncle books were written by an elderly Methodist minister called J.P. Martin in the 1960s and for many years occupied a sort of liminal fever dream space where you would half remember having read them when you were small but never see them in book shops or even know anyone else who recalled them. The first two books were reprinted in paperback, but the series seemed destined to languish in half forgotten obscurity (and ruinous second hand eBay prices) until 2013 when a kickstarter was organised to reprint the whole series in one volume and they were finally bring them back properly.
The titular Uncle is an enormously wealthy elephant in a purple dressing gown, living in a vast, rambling house called Homeward who is in constant conflict with the rough sorts who live in the derelict Badfort nearby. He has a vaguely patrician air of generosity towards the many inhabitants of his domain, but is also capable of being rather capricious and takes to kicking his enemies up into the sky. Whenever I go back to them, I always enjoy the surreal and rambling nature of the stories with bizarre new locations seemingly being discovered in every chapter or long lost relatives suddenly turning up. Hugely enjoyable, especially the fabulous illustrations by Quentin Blake.
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