Back in 1980, when I was a wee lad of five, my paternal Grandparents sent
me a book for Christmas. It was the 1980 Rupert Annual from the Daily
Express. At the time, I had neither heard of Rupert, nor seen anything of
the books.

In 1994 I developed a melody that reminded me of rain. Wanting to pursue this
line of thinking, I matched the melody up with the first of the stories in the 1980 annual: Rupert and the Flavours. The story gave me the lyrical idea and soon
I had a completed song entitled The Rainmaker. It was then my purpose to
write a similar song for each of the remaining three stories in the annual.
It would, however, take seven years to complete.