How it all started
Peasville started the 22nd October, 1990 when author Richard Kontos found a dried up pea on top of a pizza in a Brisbane, Australia, Camp Hill Pizza Hut restaurant. He and his dining companions tossed the pea from side to side and rolled it round giving it quaint names like Inspector Peabody who later changed his name to Peabobby, Sweetpea, Snowpea and other names all referring to peas.
Richard felt the desire to write down a story he had in his mind about this pea and asked the waitress for a piece of paper and a pencil. She gave him a serviette and a typical sawn-off pencil, and the first story was written there and then. After that Richard still had inspirations of stories about peas, and during the rest of that year 6 more stories were written and the town of Peasville was born. At the end of the first twelve months, Peasville was nothing more than a hobby for Richard. However, upon hearing one of his stories read out aloud after church by Phillipea Gaunt who became Phillipea the narrator, he noticed the expressions on peoples’ faces and a number of people came up to him and said that the story was great and he should continue writing. In the following year Richard wrote 25 more story books about the Tiny Town of Peasville.
In 1993, the author Richard Kontos shut out everything in his life and concentrated on the job at hand, building a town called Peasville, writing stories and bringing the whole concept to life. All the characters were developing, each one receiving its own personality, the streets of the town were named, and associated aspects such as street layout, houses, house numbers, who lived in which house, etc. were established.
The whole Peasville plan started coming together.
Today there are 65 different characters — 15 main characters, 25 co-stars and the rest are walk-throughs. Then he started developing the Critters. The town planning is complete, and all the characters know where they live Ha Ha. A dance troupe of children conduct ‘Peasville On Parade’, with life-sized Peasville characters, in shopping centres and school fetes, etc.
Richard has written 304 stories, along with an opera, pantomimes, video tapes and movie scripts, all with a non-violent theme, for young children, and has licenced Mr Authorpeadick’s Peasville Studios Pty Ltd to further develop the theme. Richard is now employed by Mr Authorpeadick’s Peasville Studios Pty Ltd to continue and aid the expansion of the Tiny Town Of Peasville.