JB Gill rose to fame as a member of one of the UK’s biggest boy bands – JLS. They dominated the charts for five years, boasting five number-one singles, over ten million record sales worldwide and a multitude of awards.
Eleven years ago, JB set up a farm in the Kent countryside, where he lives with his wife, Chloe, son, Ace, and daughter, Chiara. Their farm successfully produces award-winning KellyBronze turkeys and free-range Tamworth pork.
Together with his family, JB presents Channel 5’s Milkshake TV series Cooking with the Gills. He is also the lead presenter on the CBeebies BAFTAnominated television series Down on the Farm and features on Channel 5’s On the Farm series.
Photograph © Matt Hind
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First published 2025 001
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Illustrations copyright © Becka Moor, 2025
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For Ace, Chiara, Levi and Aoife Lily: may you always dream HUMUNGOUS dreams and know that even with small hands big things are possible.
PROLOGUE
The coast was clear.
The time was 8.59 p.m. Councillor Henry Crabbington looked left, then right, then left again. He stepped out of the doorway and his feet felt the hard, rough surface of the alley.
OK, let’s go. He checked over his shoulder, even though he had only just left the village hall. He needed to be careful. This was one of the most devious plans he’d ever come up with, and once this meeting was over he’d have the perfect
way to stop Ace and the Farm Squad in their tracks!
Or so he hoped . . .
He turned left and walked towards the woods at the back of the village hall, as he’d been instructed. He made his way down the path and checked over his shoulder again.
SLAMMM!
Out of nowhere, a masked figure gruffly commanded, ‘Stop right there!’
Councillor Crabbington panicked. He tried to speak but no words came out.
‘Close your eyes. NO PEEKING,’ came the voice again. ‘Stick.’
Councillor Crabbington didn’t dare
disobey. He held out his cane, eyes still tightly shut.
‘Payment has been received,’ said the voice. ‘In the head of your cane is the software you need. The encryption code is 12-34-87-22. I suggest you memorize it quickly. I also suggest you count to ten before walking back the way you came, and do not look back. You may live to regret it. This is the last of our conversations. Goodbye, Mr Crabbington.’
The councillor didn’t dare utter a word, and by the time he’d counted to ten, the mysterious figure had disappeared.
Once Councillor Crabbington had gathered his senses, he tapped the top
pocket of his overcoat. In it he found the eagle head of his walking cane. At the bottom of the head a tiny USB stick had been attached. He removed it, replaced the head on his cane, which he found leaning against a fence, and strode off as quickly as he could to the village hall. He didn’t look back. It was his little secret.
But secrets never stay secret forever and everything done in darkness – including secret meetings with mysterious figures –eventually comes to light.
1‘Yaaaaaaay! It’s the summer holidaaaaaays!’ Ace and his best friend
Bear sang as they ran through the back door of the farmhouse.
They were hit by the irresistible smell of freshly baked banana scones à la Gigi.
Gigi was, in Ace’s opinion, one of the best grandmothers you could ever hope for. She was a fabulous inventor – from new tools for the farm, right up to creating different recipes, and Ace was always thrilled to taste-test them for her.
‘Afternoon, you two! You seem like very eager beavers today,’ Gigi said with her usual smile. She high-fived Bear, then reached over to kiss Ace on the forehead while the two children kicked off their school shoes and immediately jumped into their yellow wellies.
Gaga chuckled as he walked into the kitchen. Ace’s grandfather was wearing one of his more colourful tops today – he was never one to be outdone on fashion! ‘
Not so fast! Up to your rooms and change out of your uniforms first, please.’
Ace and Bear smiled and rolled their eyes before kicking their wellies off again and racing upstairs giggling. ‘And quickly!’ Gaga called after them. ‘Otherwise I’ll have to eat all these scrumptious banana scones by myself!’
Gaga and Gigi shared a knowing smile. Gigi was Ace’s dad’s mum, Gaga
was Ace’s mum’s dad, and they both loved Ace almost as much as they loved summer. Their summer holidays used to consist of visits to the countryside, going on day trips and exploring new places in Britain, but that was before, when they still lived in the city. Now the countryside was their home, a home they’d set up with their only grandson, Ace, after he’d inherited it from his Great-Uncle Hakim – Gigi’s brother.
Bear had basically become their granddaughter. She spent so much time at their house that one of the spare rooms was now officially ‘Bear’s room’, but she was born and bred in Bellevue and lived with her parents a few houses down the
country lane. The countryside was in her blood, and she’d been the one to introduce Ace to the animals on the farm because she’d looked after them before Ace, Gaga and Gigi had moved in.
Since then, Ace, his grandparents, Bear and the animals (or ‘the Farm Squad’ as they were affectionately known) had managed to pass Councillor Crabbington’s farm inspection with flying colours. They’d turned the rundown property into a state-of-the-art farm, and soon after the inspection Ace and Bear had come up with the idea of growing their own fruit and veg – especially since Gigi had come to realize
just how different (and more delicious) fresh food tasted!
Now it was summer, which meant two things – spending time with the animals and enjoying being outside on the farm!
‘Last one down’s a rotten eeeeeegg ,’ Ace called to Bear as he ran out of his room, along the landing and down the stairs to the kitchen. He should have known Bear would have already beaten him downstairs. She always did.
‘Enjoy those rotten eggs,’ she said with a smirk. She was standing by the door, already stuffing her feet into her wellies.
‘How do always you manage to get down so quick?!’ Ace asked in awe.
Bear shrugged and said in an extremely matter-of-fact tone, ‘Girls rule, boys drool.’
‘Yeah, yeah, whatever,’ retorted Ace, pulling his own wellies on. But he wasn’t going to give up that easily. ‘Race you to the stables!’ he yelled halfway out of the door.
The animals were all very quiet when they reached the farmyard. ‘Ginger?’ Ace called out. ‘Bruuuiser! Pickle and Pie!
Where are you?!’ Rain lashed his face as he looked around.
None of the animals answered. They were too scared.
Had Ace been any normal ten-yearold boy wearing normal wellies, this
would have been a normal reaction, but his feet were tucked into his magic wellies, which tingled when he wore them and gave him the unique ability to understand everything the animals were saying.
‘Hello?!’ called Bear. ‘Where are you all?’ Ace’s best friend also owned a pair of magic wellies. She had been working with the animals much longer than Ace, but she hadn’t believed her ears when she’d heard their real voices for the first time.
The children found the animals hiding
beneath the straw in their pens.
‘Oh! Thank goodness it’s just you two,’ remarked Ginger the pig. All the other animals breathed a sigh of relief.
‘We were beginning to think the roof was going to fall in on our heads!’ mumbled Bumble the donkey. Bumble was usually quite pessimistic, but on this occasion all the animals seemed to agree with him.
‘Now I know the weather has been bad lately.’
Ace threw Bear a knowing look. The truth was the weather had been very strange for about a month. In fact, it hadn’t been right since Councillor Crabbington had smashed up First Fruits Farm in an attempt to sabotage the inspection with Mr Bliss a few weeks ago. ‘But it isn’t that bad today. Although the rain was a bit heavy in the night . . .’
‘None of you need to worry,’ said Bear as she did a quick head count of the animals (particularly the piglets). ‘Soon the weather will be nice and summery again, then we’ll all feel much better.’ She gave the animals a snack, which put a smile on their faces, but she
threw
Ace an anxious glance as they headed back to the farmhouse for Gigi’s scones . . .
In truth, Ace, Bear, Gigi and Gaga had been worried about the weather on the farm for a while now. Since the inspection, the weathervane at the centre of the farm had continued to throw out sparks .
Every day since, the weather had been incredibly drastic for that time of year – indeed for any time of year. It was almost as if the broken weathervane was controlling the weather. But that wasn’t possible. Was it?
It had rained all week after Mr Bliss’s
inspection, which, to be honest, was nothing unusual for Bellevue, but the next week had been full of sun. That was then followed by three days of windy weather, when the Bellevue villagers had been advised to stay clear of driving near the Rotten Reservoir in case their cars took a turn for the worse and they ended up in the bottom of it, like Councillor Crabbington had all those years ago.
Thankfully the locals had managed to avoid that particular outcome and the sun was welcomed back again for the rest of the week. Out came the paddling pools and every single grocery shop in the village sold out of ice cream!
The farmers in the neighbouring villages worked round the clock, trying to make an early crop of hay while they had such glorious sunshine; it would be an epic summer if the weather stayed like this and everyone – including Ace, Bear, Gaga and Gigi – was more than happy to overlook
the odd rain shower or windstorm. Had they stopped to think about it, the weather was certainly out of the ordinary, but nobody had really bothered to work out why.
Today the weather was rainy and cold, and Ace and Bear were sitting in the kitchen having tea with Gigi and Gaga.
‘So, guys,’ Ace said, ‘I’ve been thinking . . . now it’s summer obviously we’re going to be spending pretty much every day on the farm. Maybe we should come up with a plan to make use of all the vegetables we’ve been growing?’
Ace was saying this more to Gaga and Gigi than to Bear. Bear had already made it very clear that when it came to the farm
Ace had to run EV-ER-Y-THING past her first.
‘What should we do with them?’ asked Gigi.
Bear chewed silently, knowing what Ace was going to say next.
‘Well, I was thinking . . .’ he began. Bear kicked him under the table. ‘Er, we were thinking . . . because everything’s been growing so well, why don’t we organize a farmers’ market or something? We could sell our produce?’
Gaga and Gigi looked at each other –it was a very good idea.
‘I like it!’ Gaga grinned. ‘Shall we make a list of what to sell?’
‘How about . . . all of it?’ Bear said
enthusiastically now that her mouth wasn’t stuffed full of banana scone, jam and cream.
Gigi laughed. ‘Oh no you don’t! If you want to keep eating my tasty food, you need to leave some for me!’ she teased.
‘How about we make a list of what’s growing and then we can decide what will be ready to sell?’ Gaga offered.
Armed with paper and a pen, Ace and Bear began reeling off the fruit and veg they expected to be able to harvest that summer.
‘Right! Here we go, listen to this,’ said Ace. ‘Cucumber, strawberries, peppers, squash, cherries, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and okra.’
