Carol and I have always been involved in the Arts in one way or another, myself as a writer and Carol Ann as an artist, and both as lovers of music and songwriting.

We were best friends at boarding school, where we sang in the choir together and used to sneak off whenever possible to sing her beautiful songs out of range of the teachers! We have been friends ever since. One day, not so long ago, Carol Ann told me that her six-year-old grand-daughters favorite nighttime story was The Animals’ Carols, a number of Carols that I had written to music for my daughter, Sasha, when she was six, which she sang at her school’s Nativity Play. They were bound in blue for the occasion and, many years later, Carol’s grand-daughter, Rio, would ask for ‘the little blue book over there.’ The Animals’ Carols App came out of that happy coincidence.

The Carols were originally intended as the First Carols for Children, since, as children, we make many of our earliest explorations through those animals who are close to us – our cats and dogs and ‘teddy bears’ – allowing us to feel for them, and through them, as well as learning from them. We hope that these Carols would offer a similar introduction to the Christmas Story.