Once upon a time …
there was a scientist. She wasn’t mad. She didn’t have frizzy hair. And she definitely didn’t make weird green smoke come out of funny-shaped glass flasks in her spare time.
For many years, she worked very hard in a place called the NHS. She helped a lot of people, and it made her very happy for a very long time.
Eventually a long, cold winter fell upon the NHS. The scientist realised that she had grown tired of her work. She missed the warm sunshine and the happy faces. She wished that things could be different.
Scientists don’t believe in fairy godmothers, or genies in lamps. So the scientist thought that the only way to make herself happy was to train as an elf.
Then she realised that elf shoes would probably make her feet hurt, and so she decided to be a copy-editor instead. She joined something called the SfEP, which she hoped wasn’t the Society for Elves and Pixies, and dreamed that one day she would once again help people and make them happy …