Peter has written thirty books to date, the most enduring (1989—2002) being his book series
Coping With... which are designed to be useful, containing tips on how to 'Cope' with certain subjects as well as being amusing. Two distinguishing features of these books are: a complete A-Z of subjects (often with non-existent subjects for letters Q,V,X,Y and Z such as 'Zee end bit'), and heavy use of humorous footnotes, often with funny 'background information' about a subject.
The titles in the series are (in order):
- Coping With Parents (1989, ISBN 0-590-76140-4)
- Coping With Teachers (1991, ISBN 0-590-76485-3)
- Coping With Girls/ Boys (co-written with Kara May) (1992, ISBN 0-590-55044-6)
- Coping With School (1993, ISBN 0-590-55279-1)
- Coping With The Family (1994, ISBN 0-590-55524-3)
- Coping With Pets (1995, ISBN 0-590-55838-2)
- Coping With Friends (1996, ISBN 0-590-13183-4)
- Coping With Love (1997, ISBN 0-590-13446-9)
- Coping With Exams and Tests (1998, ISBN 0-590-19683-9)
- Coping With The 21st Century (1999, ISBN 0-590-11192-2)
- Coping With Christmas (1999, ISBN 0-439-01187-6)
- Coping With Cash (2000, ISBN 0-439-01015-2)
- Coping With 1999 (a diary)
His other books include
The A-Z of Absolutely Everything,
The Life and Times of Cristóbal Colón; Columbus Exposed (a semi-accurate biography of Christopher Columbus, 1992, ISBN 0-590-55108-6),
Palace Hill the Book (A book version of the Palace Hill TV series) and
The Number 73 annual (An annual of a TV series, 1985). More recently he has written a book for the American market - "Running for the bus", plus two titles for the Oxford University Press reading scheme Project X. He has also written a number of projects for
learndirect including one entitled did the river go?,
which is aimed at adults and children with reading and numeracy issues.