Jill Murphy has written her own books since she was six-years-old
Cornwall’s Jill Murphy is the author of the hugely successful Worst Witch series. Now Jill has written a book about a hound called Alfie and his owner Charlie.
Alfie is a large grey deerhound puppy. He loves cheese, digging holes and his owner Charlie.
One day, Alfie gets lost. He’s scared of thunderstorms, being hungry and never seeing Charlie again.
Author Jill Murphy based the story on her own experiences as a dog lover.
Jill started work on her first Worst Witch novel when she was just 15-years-old.
Dear Hound is based on Jill Murphy’s own experiences
The inspiration for Miss Cackle’s Academy came equally from the boarding school-stories Jill had enjoyed reading as a child and her own school, the Ursuline Convent in Wimbledon, which she enjoyed rather less!
As for the book’s star Mildred Hubble, Jill admits she is very much a self-portrait.
The Worst Witch stories have become some of the most successful titles on the Young Puffin paperback list and have sold more than five million copies worldwide. They were also made into a successful television series.
Now Alfie and Charlie are the latest creations to come from the pen of Jill Murphy in a book called ‘Dear Hound’.
Jill says: “We did the very first Deer Hound that I had. The whole book is very similar to what happened to us. The sad part is we never found her.”
There’s a real life Charlie as well; Jill’s own son who was just six when their dog went missing. So it’s very much a book from the heart.
“Charlie was desperate to find her. But of course the nice thing about writing the book, is that I could write our own happy ending. In the book the foxes take care of him. But they are very keen that he should go home.”
Writing books is nothing new for Jill Murphy. Even at Primary School age she was already writing plenty of her own novels.
She says: “I have got books that I wrote as a child, beginning at the age of six. There were 96 in total. They all had happy endings.”
The author has also included more than 150 black-and-white illustrations which she has produced herself.
Dear Hound is published by Penguin and comes out on Thursday 1 April 2010.
