IF Julie Fuller asks for a word in your shell-like, you know she's on another snail trail.

Mum-of-two Julie, 47, has been collecting snail paraphernalia for the past seven years. Now she has more than 400 snail-related items including jigsaws, mugs, posters, pill boxes, clocks and pictures. She also has a Swedish glass snail from the Thirties, a clockwork snail and ones made from pewter and Royal Doulton porcelain. Julie, of High Street, Uckfield, even persuaded one man to part with his snail-print T-shirt at a ten pin bowling match in Lewes. She will soon be appearing on Channel Four's Collectors' Lot programme to show of some of her best pieces. Julie also confesses to being a mollusc muncher, provided they're served with plenty of garlic sauce. Julie, a deputy manager at a home for children with cerebral palsy, said: "My collection started when I was a member of the Motor Caravaners' Club because their emblem is a snail. "Once I started collecting I just couldn't stop. Now there's no room in my flat for anything but my snail collection. "I even had a special suit cut from snail-patterned cloth just for the show." Julie's two sons aged 19 and 26 don't share their mother's passion. She said: "They don't like to eat them but I think snails are nice and chewy and have a taste all of their own. "My friends and family buy snail-related items for me so I'll probably soon have to move to a bigger house to keep them all. The only thing I haven't got is a snail tea-pot."

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