To liven up her creative writing lessons, Mrs P has got Class Five to write a story on a roll of wallpaper. Each child must add a sentence to make it the longest story ever.

Soon we are swept along in the tale of King Fred, who narrowly escapes death at the hands of pirates and attempts to save mermaids from the monstrous Wugblammer. (But he fails - it ate them all.) While Ecky Thump indulges his imagination, Noah Mount, who hates English, keeps trying to kill everyone off. Little does he or anyone else realize that in a parallel fantasy world all their characters come to life, in the whirlwind of action that is the story.

It's when the children make spelling mistakes or forget what's happened that things get interesting. The 'holey' archbishop finds himself in tatters, fluttering along like a ghost, while an army of 'nights' has plunged the kingdom into complete darkness. The story twists and turns with ever more hilarious consequences.