In a foreword to his 1978 novella Changing of the Guard, he stated that he was living at 206 Buckingham Palace Road, Westminster, which the protagonist visits.
Often the stories would have common household items suddenly come to life and chat to young Bobby Brewster and his comrade Tom McCleery.
In 1969 and 1970, he appeared on BBC's long-running children's television show Jackanory reading several Bobby Brewster stories.
Most of these books contain several short stories with simple black line illustrations, most of them by Lillian Buchanan (1914–2004).
H. E. Todd met Val Biro, author and illustrator of the Gumdrop books, at a storytelling session.