My phone reminded me this morning, via that handy ‘on this day’ notification, that it is five years since the launch of Mustard & Pepper, a really lovely book written by Alasdair Hutton and illustrated by William Gorman. It was the first time I’d worked with Alasdair and Will and the book featured delightful Dandie Dinmount terriers in a setting of Abbotsford House near Melrose, once the home of Sir Walter Scott. The picture book featured the family of Sir Walter and was written by Alasdair to raise awareness of these lovely dogs who are now at risk due to the low numbers of the breed. The book was published in July 2019 when I was still a director of Curly Tale Books, a company I had co founded some years earlier.
When I launched my own publishing imprint – Foggie Toddle Books – in 2020 Alasdair was keen to work with me again and suggested an idea he’d had using one of the characters that featured in his book The Tattoo Fox, published by Luath Press. The Castle Cat was an ideal project, again, for artist William Gorman as a specialist in animal art and who had worked so well with Alasdair before. The story submitted was an adventure for the Castle Cat when he was established at Edinburgh Castle, but it seemed sensible to create a book that explained how the kitten came to arrive in Scotland’s capital city. Alasdair put on his thinking cap and came back with a lovely story of a stray kitten who is adopted by the soldiers based at the castle. This wonderful picture book has been charming children for three years and I’m delighted to say that we are now looking at putting together Alasdair’s original story with more illustrations from the talented William Gorman. The project has been delayed a little as Will has been an artist in demand, busy working on commissions in the interim period and we’ve been waiting for a window in his schedule. He hopes to start creating ideas this winter so hopefully we’ll have a new Castle Cat book in the pipeline in 2025.
The Castle Cat