Welkin Weasels is a series of fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 novels by British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 author Garry Kilworth

Garry Kilworth

Garry Douglas Kilworth is a fantasy and historical novelist.Kilworth is a graduate of King's College London. He was previously a science fiction author, having published one hundred twenty short stories and seventy novels...

. As of 2003, it consists of six books, all published by Random House

Random House

Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...

's Corgi Juvenile imprint.

Thunder Oak

Years after all the humans mysteriously vanished from the island of Welkin, a group of outlaw weasels set out to find them in hopes of restoring the crumbling sea walls that surround the island.

Castle Storm

Following the clue found in Thunder Oak, the weasels journey to a city inhabited by quarreling squirrels.

Windjammer Run

Sylver and his outlaws set sail for the Island of Dorma, where the humans are reputed to be in a perpetual sleep.

Gaslight Geezers

Years after the return of the humans, the weasel detective

Detective

A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...

 Montegu Sylver attempts to solve the disappearance of a foreign dignitary while preventing his cousin from setting off explosives in the city.

Vampire Voles

Monty and his friends battle the swarms of vampiric

Vampire

Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...

 voles invading the capital city.

Heastward Ho!

Monty and friends travel to the eastern empire of Far Kathay to find the stolen jade

Jade

Jade is an ornamental stone.The term jade is applied to two different metamorphic rocks that are made up of different silicate minerals:...

 shoes of the Green Idol of Ommm.

Weasels

• Sylver - The leader of the outlaw weasels.
• Mawk - A cowardly member of the outlaws
• Scirf - A scruffy but intelligent male outlaw.
• Icham - Sylver's closest friend and fellow outlaw
• Bryony - A female outlaw with a close relationship with Sylver
• Miniver - An undersized but resourceful female weasel
• Wodehed - An old magician whose spells go wrong more often than not
• Dredless - A male outlaw who is the most dangerous with darts or slingshot
• Luke- The holy male weasel of the outlaws
• Alysoun- A jill (female) outlaw who is the fastest runner in Halfmoon Wood.

Stoats

• Prince Poynt - The spoiled and childish ruler of Welkin
• Princess Sibiline - Poynt's smug but friendly sister
• Sheriff
  Sheriff
  A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
  
   Falshed - The high sheriff of Welkin
• Lord Flaggatis - A sorcerer
  Magician (fantasy)
  A magician, mage, sorcerer, sorceress, wizard, enchanter, enchantress, thaumaturge or a person known under one of many other possible terms is someone who uses or practices magic that derives from supernatural or occult sources...
  
   seeking control of Welkin
• Lord Haukin - A kindly but forgetful old stoat

Weasels

• Montegu "Monty" Sylver -
• Bryony Bludd
• Scruff -
• Maudlin -
• Spindrick Sylver - Monty's cousin, an infamous anarchist with a penchant for destroying things

Stoats

• Jeremy Poynt - The Mayor
  Mayor
  In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
  
   of Muggidrear
• Sybil Poynt -
• Zacharias Falshed - The Chief of Police
  Chief of police
  A Chief of Police is the title typically given to the top official in the chain of command of a police department, particularly in North America. Alternate titles for this position include Commissioner, Superintendent, and Chief constable...
  
   in Muggidrear
• Hannover Haukin -

Animals

The animals featuring in the series are primarily species native to England, though more exotic species are occasionally mentioned. The first book explains that in the years following the disappearance of all humans, the animals of Welkin, both those wild and once domesticated, made their way into the abandoned castles and villages, using what the humans had left behind.
Gradually the animals learned to speak human language and, to an extent, use human tools. While some of the animals were content to live in the forest, the mustelids in particular adapted to a more civilized way of living.
The otters and mink

Mink

There are two living species referred to as "mink": the European Mink and the American Mink. The extinct Sea Mink is related to the American Mink, but was much larger. All three species are dark-colored, semi-aquatic, carnivorous mammals of the family Mustelidae, which also includes the weasels and...

 took to the riverways; the badgers kept to the subterranean territories; the pine marten

Pine Marten

The European Pine Marten , known most commonly as the pine marten in Anglophone Europe, and less commonly also known as Pineten, baum marten, or sweet marten, is an animal native to Northern Europe belonging to the mustelid family, which also includes mink, otter, badger, wolverine and weasel. It...

s stayed in the trees; of the remaining weasels

Least Weasel

The least weasel is the smallest member of the Mustelidae , native to Eurasia, North America and North Africa, though it has been introduced elsewhere. It is classed as Least Concern by the IUCN, due to its wide distribution and presumably large population...

, stoats, and now-feral

Feral

A feral organism is one that has changed from being domesticated to being wild or untamed. In the case of plants it is a movement from cultivated to uncultivated or controlled to volunteer. The introduction of feral animals or plants to their non-native regions, like any introduced species, may...

 ferrets, the stoats were the most ambitious and aggressive, and took control of Welkin.

Common Terms

• Titles - The weasels and stoats use the terms jack and jill to refer to males and females, respectively. In the second arc, the shortened forms Jal and Jis are used in the same way humans use the titles Mr. and Mrs.
• Hollyhockers - A popular form of gambling
  Gambling
  Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
  
   involving seeds thrown onto a surface in various patterns

Medieval Era

• Halfmoon Wood - The forest where Sylver and his bandits live
• Castle Rayne - Prince Poynt's castle, once inhabited by the humans
• The unnamed marshes - The land of the rats, ruled over by the mad stoat Flaggatis.

Victorian Era

• Muggidrear - The capital city of Welkin. It is split in half by the river Bronn. The south side is occupied by the humans, and the north is occupied by the animals.
• Whistleminster Palace - The castle where queen Amarjit Nandhra Ilford lives and where the royal family lives

Living Statues

The island of Welkin is populated not only by animals, but statues created by humans that have since come to life. The statues have the ability to talk, but most do so rather poorly and have only limited intelligence. All statues wander Welkin constantly in search of their "First and Last Resting Place," that being the quarry from which the stones they were sculpted from were cut, or the forest from which the trees used to carve them were grown.

Thematic Elements

The comedic elements of the series rely heavily on the use of puns

Puns

Puns may refer to:*Partido de Unión Nacional Saharaui, the Sahrawi political party* Pun, figure of speech* Phoenicians...

 and literary references, including allusions to Shakespearean and Biblical stories.