#jo cotterill

Could #DoctorWho - Star Tales Book Hint at January 2020 Start Date for Series 12?

As I once told Steven Moffat at a celebration of Russell T. Davies’ Doctor Who, attended by my good pals, Robert Shearman, Annette Badland, and Euros Lyn, the Doctor is a terrible name-dropper. This December, we learn how that mysterious traveller in all time and space encountered the likes of Elvis, Pythagoras, and Houdini.

The upcoming short story collection, Doctor Who: Star Taleswill…

La bibliothèque des Citrons de Jo Cotterill

Une histoire démontrant que l’on peut surpasser sa douleur grâce aux bienfaits de la lecture et de l’amitié. Genre : Jeunesse.  J’ai découvert ce titre original sur le blog de notre Broco favori ! Qui l’avait noté en coup de coeur et qui en avait fait une super chronique ! Et j’ai eu l’occasion de le lire pour la semaine des points qui comptent double pour le challenge de la coupe des 4 maisons…

If you don’t know me very well, you may not know that as well as being a writer, I also run a soft fruit farm with my husband. Last year, the world of words and the world of fruit collided in the most serendipitous way.

I was asked to do  an event with author, Jo Cotterill at the  Edinburgh International Book Festival. We put on a pretty good show – and had a ball – so when she asked me if she could come down to the  farm to research her new book, A Storm of Strawberries, I didn’t hesitate to say yes.

Kathryn Evans and Jo Cotterill sign piles of books!

  I told Jo all about the realities of farming ( she captures the distracting stress of the parents in her book brilliantly) and we had a tour around so she could see what a hi-tech business soft fruit growing is now – although still very much at the mercy of the weather- storms are very frightening and quite often, very expensive – here’s a post I wrote after a real life storm on our farm.

Narrow escape for the greenhouse

Chalk Lane, 3rd Jan 2012

But you will have to share your desk space.

We were just having another cup of tea when something horribly sad happened.  My husband came in to tell me he’d found  my adored young cat, Pike,  dead in our driveway.

I raced to my cat and as I picked up his little body, trying to puzzle out what had happened,  I felt a hard  pellet under his skin. Somebody had shot my beautiful Pike with a air rifle. I was heartbroken. Pike wasn’t very clever but he was incredibly friendly. He was so loving, in fact, that it was hard to get any work done because of his demands for cuddles. Here’s a video I made, after he’d died:

  I brought Pike home, wrapped him up and tried to finish giving Jo all the information she needed for her book – she’d travelled a long way and I didn’t want her to have wasted her time. When she left, I took Pike to the vet so they could confirm what I suspected. Yes, indeed, someone had deliberately taken his life. I reported it to the police – it is a crime – and they took it very seriously. I wrote an open letter to the killer that was shared far and  wide and even made the radio and the press  but we never found out who  had done such a horrible thing.

We buried Pike in our garden and one of my lovely friends  sent me a cherry tree to mark the spot where he is. I still miss him, it’s rare to have such an adoring little creature land in your life, but I’m grateful I had a little while with him.

Then Jo’s book came out, A Storm of Strawberries,  and right on the cover, is the silhouette of a little cat, my little cat.

Not only that, at the end of the story – which, by the way, is a story so full of love and heart  it near made mine burst – Pike gets a mention.

My funny little boy cat has been immortalized in a wonderful story.

What a gift.

Thank you so much Jo – I’m so happy our worlds collided xxx

Edinburgh Book Festival – Unusual and Unexpected.

Thanks Anji Spangle for the picture!

This weekend  was probably the best booky weekend I have ever had for I was hosted by the marvellous folk at Edinburgh Book Festival.

The Festival takes place in a little corner of  magic called Charlotte Square Gardens. A lovely little green, surrounded by white pavillions and the rather marvellous Spiegletent. There’s a book shop, obviously, and a bar –…