Here’s my new book (£6.99 paperback or £1.99 e-book on Amazon) a collection of original animal-based stories, songs and poems, written over many years for all ages – some to inform or teach, but mostly just amuse and entertain. The animals featured include cats and dogs, rats and mice, chimps and gorillas, lions and tigers, camels, lizards, horses, magpies, bears and many others both real and mythical. If there is a theme it is to show life from the animal’s perspective, that their wisdom is often superior to our own. At a time when the natural world is threatened as never before, that isn’t a bad view to consider.
Animals have been used, abused, loved, hated, and even worshiped by humans for thousands of years. We depend on them for food, clothing, shelter, transport, medicine, sport and much more, so it’s no wonder they are woven into our culture as myths, legends, and folk tales, featured in numerous movies and TV shows, or used as corporate logos and in advertising, etc.
Often, animals are given human characteristics intended to teach lessons or point out some moral or other. Aesop’s Fables, Brer Rabbit and the Anansi tales are cases in point, though there are thousands more examples from around the world, and not meant just for kids.
In real life, of course, animals generally behave far better than we do, despite our use of words like ‘beast’, ‘swine’ and ‘dog’ as insults. Most animals do not kill unless necessary and even where cruelty occurs there is usually an instinctive survival mechanism at play. What’s more, animals would manage the natural world far better without us, given our poisoning and destruction of the environment with little or no thought for the consequences.
All poems, songs and stories are original, written over several years for both adults and young people. Most have not been published elsewhere, but a few are taken from previous works.
To hear songs from book click below: