Pollution Busters

By Philip Hewitt

Anna and Matthew Morgan from Stevenage are spending their Easter holidays with their uncle and cousins. Their Uncle Richard, who is a Countryside Warden in the picturesque Usk Valley of south-east Wales, suspects that someone is tipping industrial waste sludge into local waterways. When Anna is woken late at night by the sound of a heavy truck labouring up the hill past Canal House, she becomes suspicious. But how can they find the proof which they need to convince the local police? Or could they possibly catch the criminals themselves??

This book was originally written for German teenagers learning English, but is suitable for all younger readers who love adventure stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Philip Hewitt
• Release date: Sep 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301153770

Philip Hewitt

Born 28 November 1945 in Bicester, Oxfordshire, England. Grew up in Croydon, South London (at that time in the county of Surrey). Educated at Selhurst Grammar School and Lincoln College, Oxford University. Taught first German and French to kids at the Royal Merchant Navy School in Wokingham, Berkshire, then English to German adults in Stuttgart, Germany. Published many readers and grammar books for learners of English. Now back in the UK and living in the ex-Post Office (which I ran until 2008 until it was closed down) in the small village of Tanygrisiau, North Wales. Busy learning Welsh so I can understand and communicate with the locals! Unmarried - any takers??

Book preview

Pollution Busters

An adventure story for teenage learners of English

by

Philip Hewitt

Pollution Busters

An adventure story for teenage learners of English

Philip Hewitt

Published by Philip Hewitt at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Philip Hewitt

Smashwords Edition, Licence Notes

This ebook was originally published by Ernst Klett Verlag, Stuttgart, for German learners of English.

It is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author

Other books by Philip Hewitt published by smashwords.com which you may enjoy:

Sudden Death

In a Former Life

Pennies for the Gas

Chapter One

Keep still! whispered Adrian. Don’t move, or they’ll see us!

His cousin Anna, who was lying on the wet grass beside him, stopped rubbing her leg for a moment and whispered back: But I’ve got cramp in my leg! I’ve got to move it. It’s bad enough lying here in the wet grass! This isn’t my idea of a holiday!

I thought you wanted to get ‘close to nature’ for a few days?

I did, Anna rubbed her leg again as she felt the cramp returning. "But I had no idea that we’d be so close to nature. Her new jeans – specially bought for this holiday – were ruined. Wet grass, mud ..."

Ssssh! They’re coming closer! Give me my camera – quick – it’s in my bag beside you.

Anna quietly passed him the camera, but just as he was lifting it up to take the photo, the two birds saw him and flew off.

Damn! Now they’ve flown away! We’ll never have as good a chance to photograph them again. That was all your fault!

It wasn’t! cried Anna. "You’re only saying that because I got terrible cramp from lying in this awful wet grass. You moved your head! You frightened the birds away! It was your fault, not mine!"

Adrian was not a boy who could be angry for long. I’m sorry, Anna. You’re right. I moved my head. But I wanted to get a good photograph of them. This is the first pair of great crested grebes we’ve had on the canal for years. Never mind. Perhaps we’ll have better luck tomorrow. Anyway, it’s nearly supper time and it’ll be getting dark soon. Let’s go home.

‘Home’ at the moment was one of the most fascinating houses that Anna had ever seen. Anna, who was fourteen years old, and her brother Matthew, who was two years older, lived with their parents in Stevenage, one of the ‘New Towns’ north of London. Stevenage was a modern town with lots of shops and places where young people could go in the evenings, but Anna’s house looked the same as all the houses in their street. Only the front gardens and the colours of the front doors were different. It was a ‘nice’ street in a ‘nice’ part of Stevenage, and both their parents had good jobs, so they lived comfortable lives. But the house where their cousins Adrian and Catrin Morgan lived with their father was really Anna’s dream house.

First of all it was built of stone - not brick - and was painted white. The house had two floors, but because it was built on a steep hillside, the back door was one floor higher than the front door. All the rooms were a different shape and size. They had open fireplaces and not central heating. There were two big rooms and a kitchen on the ground floor, and four bedrooms and a bathroom on the first floor. The back door was between the two back bedrooms. The girls were sharing one of the front bedrooms, and from their window they had a wonderful view across the wide