Thursday, 3 March 2016
Dougal's Diary by Sarah Stephenson
Release Date: 14th January 2016
Publisher: Crooked Cat
Publisher: Crooked Cat
Genres: Humour
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Has he chosen well and landed on his
paws? Dougal the Labradoodle puppy, a complete hypochondriac and Boris
Johnson’s No1 fan, arrives in Greenwich with great expectations.
He longs to travel the world on Virgin
Atlantic, dine at royal banquets and become; either a superstar and party the
night away or work as a doorman at the Savoy.
Behaviour classes were never on his
wish list, neither were cliff-hanging experiences on the Thames, booze cruises
to Calais or obsessions for eating socks.
Can he survive life with a chaotic
owner and her eccentric friends? Can he deal with his jealousy when a foster
puppy comes to stay? And as for his dreams, will they ever come true?
I'm not usually a great fan of books written from an animal's / pets perspective as I tend to find them a bit repetitive and a little dull but I was pleasantly surprised reading Dougal's diary. The book is written as a series of diary entries recording Dougal's days from his time as a puppy leaving the safety and familiarity of his mother and siblings, to settling in with his new 'Boss'. And what a little terror he turned out! Every day is an opportunity for Dougal to have a whole new adventure which wasn't always appreciated by the humans in his life! At times he pushed them to the limit. But, he more than makes up for everything in cuteness!
Dougal's diary entries are extremely funny at times and I found myself remembering similar things my own crazy hound got up to as a puppy............and at times still does. I could totally empathise with the fox poo incident and the losing more socks to a hungry pup than I could count!
I read extracts from the book to my daughter who found Dougal's story totally hilarious and she fell in love with him immediately demanding we get a Dougal! I'm not quite sure my nerves could cope! An endearing book full of laughs and OMG moments! I'm now looking at my own four legged furry friend in a whole new light!
ABOUT SARAH STEPHENSON
Sarah, who grew up in
Bristol, now lives in South East London with two dogs, the occasional
grandchild and a lot of mess. She’s had a chequered career as ballet dancer,
cook, cleaning lady, salesgirl of outsize underwear in Littlewoods and actor.
As an actor she worked mostly in the theatre: plays ranging from Shakespeare to
improvised, both comedy and tragedy.
Cooking combines two of
her passions; travel and people. She’s catered on barges in Burgundy, private
houses in America, many stately homes in England, run a delicatessen, a stall
in a farmer’s market and been a judge on the Great Taste Food Awards. Good
opportunities for hearing about the lives of others.
Her need to write began
with letters; sending home news of her adventures. At seventeen: travelling
alone on the Trans-Siberian Railway and across the Sea of Japan. In Greece as a
drama student, when the van blew up at the Springs of Daphne and they explored
the mainland, riding on bread vans and tractors before selling their blood for
a fiver and hitch-hiking home on a lorry. Or in Morocco on a solo trip, in
pre-mobile phone days, when she was chucked off a bus in the desert and found
herself surrounded by hundreds of camels and similar numbers of men, all in
local dress.
Since then Sarah hasn’t
stopped scribbling and joining the Write Place, a writing class in Dartford,
encouraged her to put the contents of numerous exercise books into something
more concrete.
These days Sarah chooses
less adventurous holidays but might well send one of her characters off on a
trek she doesn’t feel brave enough to make.
Dougal’s Diary is
Sarah’s first book.
Facebook: Sarah www.facebook.com/Sarah
Stephenson798
Dougal: www.facebook.com/dougal.stephenson
Twitter: Sarah: @SvsStephenson
Dougal : @DougalDiary
Blog: dougaldogsdiary.blogspot.co.uk
Well done with your first book, Sarah.
A laugh from start to finish. I loved it
Thank you both, Elaine and Natalie, for your encouragement.
Sarah