Firkin and the Grey Gangsters is a collection of four tales in which animals are the heroes."Sandy had never felt so wide awake. He contemplated the vast milky blue pond of the sky. The crescent moon, he thought, writhed in it like a little silver fish. How he would like to pin it down with his strong beak.""Firkin and the Grey Gangsters" was in 1936 a metaphor for the fear of takeover by corporate America – Firkin is a young red squirrel who leads his people in a battle against a horde of grey squirrel invaders from America. Firkin speaks in Scots."The Sheep Who Wasn’t a Sheep" is about the thoughts going through the head of a sheep, swimming between one Outer Isle and the other. "The White Drake" is a farmyard drake in Perthshire learning about flying.