Jon Blake's Blog - Posts Tagged "cats"
Last Free Cat in the USA
"The Last Free Cat" is due to be published on September 1st in the USA. This is really important to me, since the book was not greatly promoted in the UK and has only now begun to get the recognition which, with all due modesty, I have always believed it deserved. I read all the reviews on Goodreads and am profoundly grateful that readers have taken the trouble to write them. The book was written with a passion, not only for cats but for justice, and I cannot overstate how crucial it is for me to find that it has touched or inspired people.
I haven't written another book like "The Last Free Cat", but here are some I would like to humbly recommend to those who liked it:
"Oshie" - a short book for juniors whose hero has cerebral palsy.
"The True Beautiful Game" - a novella for teenagers about a snooker-mad boy meeting his long-lost father.
"Geoffrey's First" - a novel for older teens about the coming-of-age of an arrogant misfit.
"The King of Rock and Roll" - an empowering fantasy for juniors.
You may struggle to find some of these due to the short shelf life of books these days, but I am considering converting the best of my backlist to ebooks shortly.
I haven't written another book like "The Last Free Cat", but here are some I would like to humbly recommend to those who liked it:
"Oshie" - a short book for juniors whose hero has cerebral palsy.
"The True Beautiful Game" - a novella for teenagers about a snooker-mad boy meeting his long-lost father.
"Geoffrey's First" - a novel for older teens about the coming-of-age of an arrogant misfit.
"The King of Rock and Roll" - an empowering fantasy for juniors.
You may struggle to find some of these due to the short shelf life of books these days, but I am considering converting the best of my backlist to ebooks shortly.
Last Free Cat page on facebook
With the publication of The Last Free Cat in the USA, and news that a Korean edition should be out in October, I've started a facebook page for the book which I will be most grateful if readers will help to build.
Other news: three new ebooks now available on Amazon, including two junior comic novels and a novel for older teens, Snails and Lovers (originally published as Geoffrey's First, and described by the Sunday Times as 'a funny and moving love story').
Finally, I just want to say how sorry I was to hear of the passing of Nina Bawden: a great writer whose heart was in the right place. Nina once wrote that she loved my junior novel The King of Rock and Roll, and I could have no higher compliment.
Other news: three new ebooks now available on Amazon, including two junior comic novels and a novel for older teens, Snails and Lovers (originally published as Geoffrey's First, and described by the Sunday Times as 'a funny and moving love story').
Finally, I just want to say how sorry I was to hear of the passing of Nina Bawden: a great writer whose heart was in the right place. Nina once wrote that she loved my junior novel The King of Rock and Roll, and I could have no higher compliment.
Hillsborough and The Last Free Cat
The damning verdict on the police and their actions during and after the Hillsborough stadium tragedy has only confirmed what survivors and relatives of the deceased knew all along. But the nature and extent of the police cover-up has surprised millions more. Let's hope this will lead to a reexamination of decades of other cases of criminal police behaviour, from deaths in custody to attacks on legal demonstrations: police behaviour at Hillsborough was not an exception but the norm. Covering up illegal or oppressive acts (and frequently blaming the victims) is what the police do, not only in the UK but across the world. They do this secure in the knowledge that the powers-that-be will collude in the cover-ups. Why? Because when it comes down to it, the police are the private security force of the rich and powerful, fundamental to safeguarding their privileges and attacking their enemies.
The Last Free Cat has been described as a dystopia but much of what it describes is based on my own experiences of the here and now. One such experience - an anti-BNP march in Welling in 1993 - could well have turned into another Hillsborough were it not for the bravery of demonstrators facing down the Met.
The police had agreed a route with demo organisers and at first everything proceeded normally: the protest was militant but disciplined and stuck to the agreed route. However, as demonstrators came down a narrow road, walled on both sides, the police formed a barrier at the front of the march and began to attack it, using truncheons and horses. Protestors fought back: if they hadn't, and the horses had stampeded through, I believe there is a real probability people would have been crushed to death.
Next day the papers were predictably full of photos of the rioting protesters, together with the usual knocking copy. The state had chosen to do the fascists a favour, not unusually, as the far right will always return it by dividing workers and deflecting anger away from the rich and powerful and onto various minorities.
The Last Free Cat is, I hope, an entertaining and convincing story, not a political lecture, but political realities certainly inform it and, indeed, give it its conviction and purpose. A writer can't fake conviction, and without it, to me, no writer is of much interest, which is why supposed greats like Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan etc do not inhabit my bookshelves. None are worth a fraction of those fantastic people who fought so long for justice for the victims of Hillsborough.
The Last Free Cat has been described as a dystopia but much of what it describes is based on my own experiences of the here and now. One such experience - an anti-BNP march in Welling in 1993 - could well have turned into another Hillsborough were it not for the bravery of demonstrators facing down the Met.
The police had agreed a route with demo organisers and at first everything proceeded normally: the protest was militant but disciplined and stuck to the agreed route. However, as demonstrators came down a narrow road, walled on both sides, the police formed a barrier at the front of the march and began to attack it, using truncheons and horses. Protestors fought back: if they hadn't, and the horses had stampeded through, I believe there is a real probability people would have been crushed to death.
Next day the papers were predictably full of photos of the rioting protesters, together with the usual knocking copy. The state had chosen to do the fascists a favour, not unusually, as the far right will always return it by dividing workers and deflecting anger away from the rich and powerful and onto various minorities.
The Last Free Cat is, I hope, an entertaining and convincing story, not a political lecture, but political realities certainly inform it and, indeed, give it its conviction and purpose. A writer can't fake conviction, and without it, to me, no writer is of much interest, which is why supposed greats like Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan etc do not inhabit my bookshelves. None are worth a fraction of those fantastic people who fought so long for justice for the victims of Hillsborough.
