Press Release

Talking animals have been relatively prominent in light adult literature for some time, and the reader contemplating buying “Home Thoughts On Abroad” might be forgiven for thinking “Oh no, not another cute canine telling us about her great adventures”. Wrong! This is something quite different. The twenty plus letters in his book, purportedly written by a dog from the Australian bush, chronicle with considerable humour and sharp observation, the trauma for a much loved, true blue Aussie Collie, of being transported from her five acre home in rural Western Australia to a new life in a town house in the West of England. She tells her story with a nice injection of colourful Aussie patois, gleaned from her home environment.

The book will appeal to all dog lovers, with the possible exception of the refined members of the  “Crufts Set”. It will resonate in particular with Brits who have made the big move “Down-Under” and stayed there or returned to Britain with friendships and other connections still in place, and with Aussies living here now and feeling occasional pangs of homesickness for their old sunburned land.

The author of the letters set out to write them to the Australian friends who had looked after the dog during her six months quarantine, as a means of saying thankyou for doing so. As the letters were developed and attracted an interest among other friends still living there, they became an important means of keeping in touch with the life he and his wife had to leave behind when they returned to England for family reasons. This provides a very human counterpoint to the dog's view of the world. The book will appeal at different levels to everyone above the age of 15 who has ever owned a dog.

Published by Austin and Macauley. ISBN 9781849631136, Publication Date 31 January 2012 and available to pre-order from Amazon here.