I remember my school English teacher looking over the top of her glasses at me with disapproval whenever I handed in an assignment. Then she would reach for her red pen. Her comments normally included variations on ‘could do better, see me'.

My handwriting was always a scrawl, looking worse than a doctor's handwritten note. The content was, at best, average. I loved reading. Writing, not so much.

Many years passed and, although my writing was mostly restricted to tapping out comments on social media, I did try my hardest to always write something interesting. 

Then Doris the Airedale Terrier entered our lives, as a ten week old puppy, all teeth and attitude. I began to share stories of her antics on social media, just a few lines of observational humour about life with the world's largest Terrier. To my surprise, people told me they enjoyed my writing style. Could this be the same writing style I got marked down on many years before? Had the knocks and scrapes of living through all those years unlocked something inside of me, and now I could actually string a sentence together?

People asked for more, and complimented me on my writing style. I collated all the Doris stories and made them into something loosely resembling a book. But something was missing. A book of stories about a life journey with a delinquent dog and nothing else held only so much interest.

Then the cancer came along, and suddenly I had another life journey to intertwine with my untrainable puppy. A serious side to Doris’ antics. A yin to the yang.

The book was born, and after many hours and many rewrites, Surviving Doris was published on 1st October 2021. That date is also my birthday, and exactly one year before I was in hospital with my life very much in doubt, so it seemed a perfect time to launch the book.

It is said that authors have two fears: no one will read your book, and that everyone will read your book.

People did read it and, much to my surprise, they read it by the thousands, and said very nice things about it. I am so very humbled that the words I have tapped out on this keyboard have resonated with so many people.

My second book - Caution, Cobbles - was published in 2024, and is a humorous fiction, inspired by true events. It is based in a quintessential English country village, over a period of six days when all power was lost following a storm. It features a selection of eccentric characters, including an Airedale, getting up to mischief because their life has been disrupted - this much is true, as I lived through that week. The rest, well, I’ve let my mind run free, which I was not able to do with Surviving Doris.

Hopefully, I’ve now made my English teacher proud. See, I did listen sometimes and didn’t spend all my time looking out of the window.

Both books are available on Amazon - please click on the link at the top of the page. 

My next project has grown into a set of (at least) three books, following new characters and their adventures. The cast includes, of course, an Airedale.

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