If you thought dodos were extinct, then you haven't read Fowl Play. When two teachers with a lot of imagination got together, the result was a hilarious adventure story, flying in the face of evolution.

Aimed at eight- to 12-year-olds and published last Christmas, it's the brainchild of Jim Halligan and John Newman, both teachers in St Anne's primary school, Shankill, Co Dublin.

This is not their first collaboration - they own up to being the authors of a variety of classroom texts from Simply Science to some of the books in the Try This and A Way With Words series. So, where do they find the time? Halligan says cheerfully that the reason he was attracted to teaching was the amount of free time and the "major holiday factor."

The Halligan-Newman partnership began with a casual conversation in the school corridor eight years ago. "We agreed that the geography book we were using was dreadful," says Halligan. "In fact, we decided we could do better ourselves. So, being teachers and chancers and DIY-types, we put together a geography book, full of great ideas, with interactive packs," says Halligan. Then, the publishers duly baulked - it was way too expensive to produce.

Undaunted, they decided to have a go at a science book. After all, Newman got a B in science in the Inter Cert and Halligan's wife works in a haematology lab. Newman says their approach was back-to-basics. They did all the experiments and were confident that, if they could cope, others would also manage. They ended up giving in-service courses to other teachers after Simply Science was published.

As to the leap into creative writing, Newman admits to a purple patch while he was in school but studying English literature in college soon dried up his creative juices. Halligan's creative path wandered through photography and painting before he decided to try writing. He is still painting landscapes in acrylics and exhibits in two galleries. His last exhibition, Catch the Light, built on his photographic experiences - trying to catch the light in the landscape.

Newman and Halligan's creative collaboration is set to continue. They are currently devising workbooks for school texts. Fowl Play is the first of a three-book deal with Wolfhound.

How do two people write one book? After plotting it out together, collaboration is mainly telephonic. Newman says that they each write alternate chapters and fine tune later. "We iron out problems over breaks at school. There's very little criticism. We work very fast and Fallons are quite happy to accept hand-written material."

So, when it came to fiction, they applied the same formula, with each writing a chapter, occasionally two, apiece. Surprisingly, the result is a seamless story which appears to have been written by the one author. They each have a ready-made audience - Halligan's children are aged five and 10 while Newman's brood are aged 12, 11 and nine.

Surely, it's time to throw down the chalk - they must be making a fortune by now? "Ah," says Halligan coyly, "we're making a few bob. But, they won't be scratching my name off the roll book in Marlborough Street yet."