As many of you will know, my predecessor, Rolo, was a dog of literary talents. Not only did he have his own blog and magazine column, he also scribed two books, 'The Last Rolo', a year in his eventful life, and 'Sit, Stay, Roll Over', a manual, written for dogs, on how to train their hupeeps. Both books were beautifully illustrated by the talented Sally C Greenfield and published by 'Her Indoors' using her self-publishing imprint, Quill and Apple publishing. The illustrations were also put on cards and mugs. The books got wonderful support from so many people: the wider dog owning community; Border Terrier social media most noteably Twitter's BT Posse - Sir Clapton Terrier wrote a back cover review for 'Sit, Stay, Roll Over'; and many more besides. Rolo was invited to 'appear' on local radio, Uckfield FM, as it was then, and BBC Radio Sussex. He was also invited to Essex Borderfest and even launched his second book there. He had a great time!
There are some lovely stories of people enjoying reading the book but two of our particular favourites are from someone who posted a picture of their child, taking it in his backpack as his school reading book, and another about a person who, on reading the book during a hospital stay, laughed so hard they woke the person in the next bed. Quite an accolade! Also, we have received so many photos over the years of dogs reading the books across the world, especially Border Terrier puppies, learning what it means to be a BT and our proud tradition of doing our own thing and subverting attempts to train.
When I joined the household, I quickly became part of the family literary tradition, and, in due course, inhereted responsibility for the Boss's books, taking over his magazine column when a very elderly Rolo finally went OTRB in February 2019. 'Her Indoors' is on the local speaker circuit, talking on a range of worthy subjects but by far the favourite talk is 'My Literary Dogs'. She has even delivered it for Border Terrier Welfare at their AGM! With the arrival of my own apprentice in 2021, I was able to ensure Bear was suitably indogtrinated from a young age, using the Boss's books. I think he would have approved.
However, time passes and Rolo has been gone for almost five years. Very sadly, this year, we lost our generous illustrator, with the death of Sally. The remaining books are now few in number, the cards and mugs almost sold out. So we've made the decision to withdraw the remainder from the market place at the end of this year. We have had so much fun with the books and they have been more successful than we could possibly have anticipated - we have sold a kennel load! We reckon practically every fur in the BT Posse owns a copy and some of you are repeat customers. We wanted to say a really heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported us. We feel like Rolo's memory lives on and we are truly grateful.
If anyone wants to buy a book, mug or card, before the end of the year, there are a few left and you can order here.If anyone is local and is able to collect, or we can drop some in on our travels, we are happy to donate to raffles etc for good causes, just let us know. It's what Rolo would have wanted,
