My favourite cat books – Part 1: “The Cats of Moon Cottage” series by Marilyn Edwards

Helen White August 5, 2014

It won’t come as a surprise to you that I read a lot of books about cats. Some are non-fiction, the majority is autobiographical. I don’t actually know how it started, but I think I just got some as presents and some I bought myself. So I thought I would share with you the books that I have enjoyed reading in this little series.

The Moon Cottage series with Bobby in the background. Copyright Helen White

First up I want to share with you Marilyn Edwards’ “The Cats of Moon Cottage” series. It consists of four books and is her autobiographical account of life with her cats. My husband bought me the first two “The Cats of Moon Cottage” and “More Cat Tales from Moon Cottage” as a paperback and once I started reading it I couldn’t stop. I had tears in my eyes when I finished reading the first book. I won’t give too much away.

The paperback version of the two first books of the Moon Cottage series. Photo copyright Helen White

After I finished these two books I contacted Marilyn to tell her how much I enjoyed them and that I would love to interview her for the German cat magazine “Geliebte Katze” for which I have written several pieces (I also told her of course about our Bobby). To my surprise not only did she write back very quickly, but sent me signed copies of the whole series! The first book has actually been translated into German and published in Germany, but despite my own efforts to write about Marilyn and her work for the magazine it didn’t get commissioned.

The Moon Cottage series by Marilyn Edwards. Copyright of photo Helen White

The third book is titled “The Cats of Hutton Roof” and the final book “The Coach House Cats”.

One of the four signed copies of the Moon Cottage series by Marilyn Edwards. Photo copyright Helen White

Marilyn has a wonderful eye for detail and you can easily picture her life with the cats. If you are a cat owner you will recognise the typical cat behaviours, the difficulties you face when moving house and also empathise when bad things happen to the cats (and yes you will cry if you are a softie like me). Furthermore, the stories of her cats Otto, Septi, Titus, Pushkin, Fannie and Gilly are beautifully illustrated by Peter Warner, who sadly died in 2007.

If you love reading cat stories – especially real life stories you won’t be disappointed with this series.

You can find more information about Marilyn and her books on her website here.

2 Comments

Marilyn Edwards
August 31, 2014 @ 4:18 pm

I was very moved by Helen White’s review above of the books in the Moon Cottage Cat series and with that first book it is especially difficult to write about it without doing a spoiler, so especially well done Helen.

Having written that series of autobiographical books I eventually achieved my lifetime’s ambition of writing fiction by writing two children’s novels aimed at the 12 year old market which were in part written from the point of view of the cats involved without being anthropomorphic and that was a serious challenge but for that the great late Henry Williamson author of Tarka the Otter was my mentor. Anyway only time will tell if I was successful.

Two of the adult non fiction books and the two children’s books are available from most good bookshops and also from my website and I would love to hear from anyone struggling with the problem of writing about animals in a realistic manner.
- Helen White
  August 31, 2014 @ 4:25 pm
  
  Thanks for your comment Marilyn. I am sure your children’s books are as entertaining as your adult ones. I have not attempted to write fiction – only done a few courses – one the OU which was great. I have to write another post for this series:) Lots of great cat books on my book shelves.

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