Court in the Act

Court in the Act (2007) Post 336

Court in the Act is the story of Project Tatters. Alia Singh and Nathaniel Raven are twelve-year-old neighbours. Alia has found an old video of a signing chimp; a chimp taught to use human signing. This sets the pair off on a quest to communicate with animals. The story is told through the amused observation of Math, Nathaniel's brother, a trainee vet. Having achieved mixed results with the cockatoos in the park, old spaniel Tatters, a retired racehorse and the enigmatic roof cat, Nathaniel and Alia argue the point and discuss points of view. A close encounter with the roof cat leads them to a surreal court, where they are accused, on behalf of humans, of treating animals with disrespect. Old Tatters acts as their advocate, and the kids promise to continue Project Tatters and tell someone important. This important person, as Math discovers, is him! 

This story is full of echoes of my younger days. Tatters is based on our old spaniel Ace, who bore (with grace) many of the indignities in the story from my own children. The places are named after writers... Attenborough, Durrell and Lofting - and yes, Doctor Doolittle gets a name-check. The three cockatoos in the aviary, and the aviary itself, are (or were) real... I met them in Portland. 

ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist.