Light hearted, animal related, autobiographical books

[BestIsWest]

I’m looking for recommendations for my DM who is currently in hospital and has short term memory issues. She used to be a great reader but hasn’t read anything much for a few years until the hospital stay and she’s beginning to show a bit of interest in reading again.

She’s just finished and thoroughly enjoyed Nigel - Monty Don and is loving Paul O’Grady’s Country Life. Any ideas for something similar would be appreciated.

James Herriot is the obvious one but I know she’s read them all.

Gerald Durrell?

I'm not sure how easy they are to find but I really loved the Down to Earth series by Faith Addis. She and her husband buy a cottage/farm and the books are about them adapting to country life and running a farm and B&B. Very funny and wholesome. It was turned into a TV series with Pauline Quirke in the early 2000s.

A Streetcat Named Bob is good but might could be a bit heavy/sad.

My Family and Other Animals

The Penguin Lessons
Elephant in my Kitchen

Both lovely.

Deric Longden The Cat who came in from the Cold
Syou Ishida We’ll prescribe you a cat
Battersea Dogs & Cats Home A Cat a Day
Hiro Arakawa The Travelling Cat Chronicles

Slightly left field - but has she read Roald Dahl’s autobiographical books?

‘Boy’ and ‘Flying Solo’.

Both enjoyable reads and quite lightweight ie manageable from a hospital bed!

Lovely suggestions, thank you. I know she’s read My Family and other Animals. I will look up the others.

Ted's pawtobiography from Gone Fishing with Paul whitehouse and Bob Mortimer.

Down to Earth books are lovely!

Warrior, Story of a Horse. About a horse who went through ww1. Is true.

The Minack Chronicles by Derek and Jean Tangye are lovely if you can find them.

Another vote for the Cat who came in from the cold

There are two sequels to My family and other animals about his family's time in Corfu, and then loads more books that Durrell wrote about animal collecting around the world and then setting up his zoo. The Batfut Beagles, Three Singles to Adventure, etc.

There are some quite touching & emotional animal stories like Jock of the bushveld and Tarka the otter.

All creatures great and small by James Herriot plus all the sequels.

If she likes birds, I highly recommend Bird Cottage by Eva Meijer. It's a very gentle and inspiring read and although not an autobiography is written as if it is. It is based on a true story of an inspiring lady Len Howard. There are some war time references which might be either nostalgic or upsetting though.

Also Noel Fitzpatrick - Becoming the supervet from growing up on a farm in Ireland to becoming a vet.

Can't beat James Herriot though!

Didn’t the sports commentator Andrew something write one about his dogs Olive and Mabel?

Our Zoo by June Mottershead maybe? A memoir about the foundation of Chester Zoo and how they got through WWII. I really enjoyed it.

Oh I remember a lovely one - Two Owls at Eton by Jonathan Franklin, about how in 1957 he brought two tawny owl chicks to boarding school with him.

Some lovely photos here: https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/21575246.raised-two-baby-owls-eton/

Oh yes, Olive and Mabel helped a lot during lockdown.
Cute owls!
Down to Earth sounds perfect. I know she’s read a few of the others.

I’ll have a read through these and make some suggestions to her. I can’t tell you how delighted I am to see her enjoying a book again.

I got this for my mum for Christmas and she loved this!

Thought of another one: Sophie from Romania by Rory Cellan-Jones.

Penguin Lessons.
Not an autobiography but Remarkably Bright Creatures is an excellent animal centric fiction.

I’ve followed Sophie from Romania’s story. They’ve been incredibly patient with her.

If she is struggling with short term memory she might find it easier to read books that she has read before as they will be familiar.

Clare Balding's autobiography "My animals and other family" is themed around her families' animals, mainly horses and dogs.

Faith Addis books are good, Doreen Tovey also has a series about her cats/rural living and the early Tom Cox books (Talk to the Tail etc) are quite funny. If you can find the second hand Monica Edwards autobiographical books beginning with The Unsought Farm are also interesting.

I cried the first time she went out for a walk...

Sorry, back to books.