“The Secret Diary of Adrian Cat” – a hilarious account of one-year in the life of Stuart and Linda Macfarlane’s cat has just been published by DNA Press.
SUMMARY: The secret lives and loves of cats are revealed in this adventure novel, entitled “The Secret Diary of Adrian Cat” that peeks into a year in the life of the mischievous feline Adrian Cat. Adrian is having trouble keeping his new year's resolutions (especially "I will not be condescending to my humans"), and he's also adjusting to the fact that his humans have a new baby, his best friend needs constant help, and he's in love for the first time—with the angelic-seeming Snowball. But Snowball turns out to be less than perfect and tries to lead Adrian into organized crime. She forces him to join the evil cat Killer’s gang. After numerous misadventures he realizes that he does not love the beautiful but power-crazed Snowball and really loves the scruffy yet tender alley cat named Gypsy. After Killer’s gang runs Gypsy out of town, Adrian is forced to make some strange friends, fight the evil Killer and travel a rough road in order to convince Gypsy of his love.
PRESS RELEASE BODY: The DNA Press team is happy to announce the publication of "The Secret Diary of Adrian Cat", by Stuart and Linda Macfarlane of Scotland.
“The Secret Diary of Adrian Cat” relates one year in the life of the extraordinary cat Adrian. At the start of the year Adrian makes his New Year Resolutions but soon finds that they are not easy to keep - especially the more testing ones like ‘I will not be condescending to my humans’ and ‘I will not maul the vet’.
The Adrian Cat book is modeled on “The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole - Aged 13 ½”, the book that made its author Sue Townsend the best-selling novelist of the 1980s. “I have always been a great fan of Sue Townsend and have read many of her books,” said Stuart Macfarlane. ‘The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole’ provided the inspiration to write our book in a diary format. I loved the idea of a cat keeping a secret diary of all his adventures, worries and aspirations. ‘The Secret Diary of Adrian Cat’ started out as a working title for the book but Adrian took on such a powerful character that when the book was complete we could not bear to change his name. We spent hours trying other names, but none were right – Adrian was Adrian and refused to be called anything else.”
Added Linda Macfarlane, “The book is about all the things Adrian could be getting up to; trying to become famous, looking for the love of his life, promoting peace between dogs, cats and mice, getting involved with an evil gang, saving the life of a fox, treasure hunting with a pirate parrot and, of course, looking after his human family.”
When Adrian spots a beautiful white Persian walking through his garden he immediately falls head over paws in love. Her name is Snowball and though she appears angelic she turns out to be a power-crazed feline who will do anything to get what she wants.
In an attempt to win Snowball’s heart, Adrian is forced to become a member of the Cosa Nostra gang - run by the evil cat, Killer. As a member of the gang he becomes involved in many mischievous activities such as housebreaking and raiding the fish shop. As Adrian becomes more influential Snowball unexpectedly announces that they are soon to marry.
When Adrian finds an injured fox Snowball refuses to help saying, ‘The only good fox is a dead fox. When it dies, bring me its tail - I need a new cushion’. By good fortune a cat ‘of no fixed abode’, Gypsy, offers to help and through her knowledge of herbal medicines and tender care the fox is saved.
Being jealous of the amount of time Adrian is spending with Gypsy, Snowball gets Killer to run her out of town. It is only then that Adrian realizes that it is not the beautiful Snowball but the rather scruffy Gypsy that he loves. After days of searching he finds Gypsy and eventually persuades her to marry him.
Of course much more than this is happening in Adrian’s complex life, for he has a human family to support and a best friend, Lucky, who constantly needs help and advice. This ensures that there is not a day without crises, adventure, and of course lots of food to eat and as much sleep as Adrian can cram in. But the appearance of a noisy new human kitten in Adrian’s family makes it difficult for him to sleep and when an outbreak of ‘Nappy-Rash’ makes the noise unbearable, Adrian has no choice but to move in with an elderly human, Old-Grey-Fur. However, he discovers that she sleeps even more than he does and he soon moves back with his humans. On a day to day basis Adrian has the training of his young humans, Brat and Brat-2, to attend to in addition to fighting for a spot on his favorite chair, and of course attempting to fulfill his resolutions to, ‘become the world’s most famous cat’, and to ‘promote world peace between cats, dogs and mice’.
Summing up the year Adrian exclaims, ‘I’ve fallen in love for the first time and fallen out of love for the first time. I’ve married the best girl in the world. I’ve added a new human to my family. I’ve made friends with a robin, a fox and a pirate parrot. I’ve been the enemy of an evil gang leader, best friends with him and then his enemy again. My one regret is that there just hasn’t been enough time for sleeping.’
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