The Funny Farm...

Was published in hardback in 2002 by Cumbria Life magazine.  It rapidly sold an incredible 6000 copies.  Transworld acquired the rights and published in Bantam paperback in 2004; Funny Farm was serialised in the Daily Mail, featured on numerous television and radio programmes, published in large print and as a talking book.   Little imagination was needed as it is all – or mostly all – true.  Think of it as a How Not To book, with laughs… Tess, Cover Dog, enjoyed celebrity status and was often pursued by paparazzi.  Her owner held the lead in silence, aware that she was in the presence of greatness. Sadly we lost Tess earlier this year, one day short of her 14th birthday. Right up until the end, she was a great character with huge presence and gave every impression of knowing that she was a real little star. We miss her.

Sheepwrecked published by Bantam Press is now available in hardback from all good bookstores and on-line from Amazon.  A follow-up to The Funny Farm, a sequel, a journey, a diary – it’s all of those and takes us through a typical farming and countryside year, with the usual mix of ramblings, reflections and the odd rant (usually involving random permutations of bureaucracy, the EEC and DEFRA) and naturally, there’s an occasional pause for a look over our shoulders at how things used to be, when a mouse (and several generations of its extended family) lived at 6, Glebe Road instead of being something with which to control a computer, and policemen didn’t look about 12 years old. 

If you would like details of forthcoming signings, just click on the eMail link below and I'll let you know directly, as the diary seems to be changing rapidly at present!

The lurcher on the cover of Sheepwrecked is Katie Morag. She came to us from the Refuge at Wetheral - given that I can move the Manxes more easily with a bucket of feed than with a dog, a collie wasn't essential and we liked her rakish expression. She is as mad as box of frogs and an utterly wonderful dog.

Out in Paperback July 2007

I write for several publications on a freelance basis and I’ve contributed a wide range of features and a regular countryside column to Cumbria Life since 1993.  I like writing features because it gives me the opportunity to ask lots of impertinent questions of people I never thought I would meet and the column has an enthusiastic following.  For my part, I am humbly grateful that people enjoy my work; positive feedback, any writer will tell you, is job satisfaction with bells, whistles and party poppers on.