Uncle Ted is teaching me cowboy techniques. Last week he lassoed a lamp. Mum said, ‘I’d rather have everything in one piece thank you very much.’ I lassoed my brother. He wasn’t too happy either. 

Lauren says: The first lines of this book are the first words
I ever wrote about Clarice Bean and her family. In the end
there was no room for Uncle Ted in Clarice Bean That’s Me so
I decided to write a whole story about him. He is one of those people who everyone likes, and although he appears to be a very in control sort of person, things actually get a bit out of hand whenever he is around.

I included the guinea-pig because my sister and I sort of collected them when we were little. It didn’t really start as a collection.
It started with two guinea-pigs and sort of turned into sixteen. Luckily my dad was good at building hutches.

I remembered the guinea-pigs, and how they were always escaping and how many hours we spent looking for them and how we had to chase them round the garden – not just my sister and me but my whole entire family. It just seemed like the sort of thing that would happen to Uncle Ted.