CATCALL
Linda Newbery

When did it all start, the cat thing, the lion thing, the time when everything involved Cat or Leo?

With Jamie, it seemed to be the day we went to the Wildlife Park. I'd had it ages before, but that was different. I chose it. I wanted it. With Jamie, it chose him. And that had to be my fault, because I'm the one who brought it into the house with my Book and my posters and the things I collect, so maybe it started before we saw the lions. Maybe it took us a long time to notice.

EXTRACT
It's December, the time between Christmas and New Year. Josh and his younger brother Jamie are visiting a wildlife park with their Dad and his girlfriend, Kim.

...The lion broke away from his circuit and stood with his head high, taking in smells and sounds from across the park. Dad passed me his binoculars, and as I focused, the lion turned his heavy head and looked straight at me with his amber eyes. A shock fizzled through me. I couldn't look away from those stern, solemn lion eyes - I was held there, staring and staring back at him. For that second, there was nothing between me and him - no binoculars, no glass panel, no fence. I felt sure he knew me, knew what I was thinking.

Then he turned away.

"Here, Dad." I handed back the binoculars, and he offered them to Kim. Jamie had slunk round behind Dad.

Kim laughed. "It's all right, Jame. He can't get you."

We stood looking a bit longer. Kim took a couple of photographs with the camera Dad had given her for Christmas. My fingers were going numb, and Jamie was stamping his feet to keep warm.

"I don't like seeing lions in cages," Dad said.

"Hey!" Kim jabbed his arm. "It was your idea to come!"

"Yeah, I know," said Dad. "But lions - it doesn't seem right."

"Oh, they look quite happy to me." Kim was looking at the leaflet with the map of the park. "It's what they're used to."

I wasn't sure. I'd wanted to come here, to see the lions and leopards in particular, but now I saw what Dad meant. It didn't seem right for them to be penned up for people to stare at. Suddenly I felt ashamed of staring through binoculars. There was something about that lion that couldn't be penned up in a cage. Something fierce and free.

WHERE DID IT START?

Authors are regularly asked "Where do you get your ideas from?" and in this case I know at least part of the answer.

Three different starting points came together. When I was a child, I seriously believed that cats would speak to me if they could. Spirit of Cat seemed to shine from the eyes of every cat I met - a wise and ancient spirit.

Many years later, CATCALL suggested itself to me as a title. I like one-word titles, and titles that can have more than one meaning. And it's good too to have a title that is absolutely right.

With cats of all kinds in mind, I visited the Cotswold Wildlife Park and saw the lions and cubs described in the extract above. The male lion was pacing the boundary of his enclosure. I gazed at the lion, and the lion gazed at me ... and the rest of the story grew from there.

As with all my books, it began with what I thought were good ingredients, and a lot of questions. I didn't know all the answers when I began; they became clear as the story grew.

This is my way of writing a story, but other authors may do it very differently. Some authors like to plan the whole story before they start; I don't. Over the years, I've learned what works for me, and I know that my best ideas will come half-way or two-thirds of the way through a story, rather than at the beginning.

CATCALL is beautifully illustrated by Ian Benfold Haywood. In the story, Josh keeps a scrapbook, his BOOK OF CATS, and Ian's black-and-white illustrations show some of the items Josh collects - poems, information from websites, myths and legends about cats, superstitions and facts. I certainly think Ian's work adds to the appeal of the book, and hope readers will agree. Here are some samples:

JOSH, FAMILY AND FRIENDS

Although portraits of the characters don't appear in the book, Ian drew them all to help him get into the story. He's kindly agreed to let me reproduce some of the pictures here:

Ian is a wonderful illustrator with a range of styles and subject, and he's just as good with colour as he is with line drawings. Visit his website for more:

http://www.benfoldhaywood.co.uk/index.html

Leaping Cat click to see a larger version

Buy from Amazon.co.uk

Linda Newbery, October 2006

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