Be careful what you write

Last week I met the most extraordinary person – my editor. I’ve worked with Caroline Petherick on two books now over about two years but never met her before. It was only recently that I visited her at her clifftop home near Looe. I should have done this earlier for she’s full of bright ideas, is fascinated by the world in general and knows an awful lot of interesting stuff.

What prompted this get together was a rather surprised e-mail from her a fortnight ago. Caroline is almost over-qualified as my editor for in addition to being a damned fine proof reader she has a pilot's licence and keeps sheep. Recently her flock of Jacob’s sheep have had lambs and one of them was enormous. Having worked on my book The Wormton Lamb, she had to tell me and I had to see this phenomenon for myself.

Caroline lives in idyllic surroundings not far from the Monkey Sanctuary and with spectacular views of Looe Island. Her flock is a necessity. They keep her 35 acres under control. Their fleeces aren’t worth much and she gets too attached to them to eat them very often.

The lamb in question was suffering from joint ill but had recovered sufficiently to be running around even if he was limping a bit. At two weeks old he was obviously bigger than his older siblings and was happily eating the feed for the adults when the other lambs seemed interested in only suckling. Seeing as he had such a head start on the others he’s probably going to be a bit of a monster.

It was great to meet Caroline at last. She’s into practically everything and full of enthusiasm. I had a very enjoyable evening kicking around wild ideas with her. She's convinced that those of us who can should get "off the grid." By this she means drilling bore holes for water and generating our own power through solar panels, heat pumps or wind turbines. This is because the grid won't survive the forthcoming changes in climate. Not everybody can do this of course but those who can are well advised to do so not only for their own benefit but also to help the masses who live in cities who have no obvious alternative. Sounds like an apocalyptic idea for another book.

However, it seems that I’m going to have to be careful what I write in future. My dystopian vision of Post Unification Euphobia in The Horsepower Whisperer is already happening if you are a farmer. Caroline tells me there is a fleece marketing board that effectively has the market monopoly and rigs the price of fleeces. Also DEFRA will come and remove the bodies of any dead sheep provided they die during office hours. Now The Wormton Lamb itself could be growing in South East Cornwall.

It’s a good thing my stuff is optimistic and generally positive in outlook. We could do with some happier endings in real life. Maybe that’s the problem. Too many people are writing about credit crunches and the collapse of the housing market and then lo! it all happens.

So I’m going to write – here and now – that Cornish choughs will return to the cliffs of Caroline’s home. How’s that for a self-fulfilling prophecy?