Lluis The Llama 1997 and 2021.
'A young llama, you say, miss?' said PC Wilson to Zazie in Dangerwood Village Police Station.
'That's right, he's Peruvian.'
'He's what?'
'From Peru.'
'Oh. On holiday,like?'
'No, he lives here.'
'Here in Dangerwood?' said PC Wilson, looking surprised. He couldn't ever remember having seen a llama in the post office or the village shop. He didn't really know much about llamas.
'What's his name, then?'
'Lluis.'
'L-e-w-i-s?'
'No, Lluis.'
'Yes, Lewis. 'Lewis the llama',' said PC Wilson and laughed, as though he had made a joke.
'No it's Lluis. It's the Peruvian spelling...Here, I'll write it down,' said Zazie, and she did.
‘Now, why do you think he's gone missing, miss?' asked PC Wilson.
'Because he was unhappy. He was put in the children's farm by mistake, and it upset him; that's why he spat at the boy.'
'Spat!' said Constable Wilson, looking shocked,
'spitting, indeed. I don't like the sound of that!' he said, shaking his head, 'we can't have llamas spitting as they please in Dangerwood. Hooligan behaviour that is.'
'But if you'll just listen - llamas hardly ever spit, they're usually very well behaved, it's only when they've been upset....'
'I see, miss.' said PC Wilson, interrupting, and not looking at all certain that llamas were usually very well-behaved.
'So what does this llama look like?'
'Well, he looks a bit like a sheep from a distance, but with a long neck. Of course, his wool is much finer and he's much cleverer than a sheep....'
'Of course, miss.'
'His fleece is white all over,' said Zazie, 'except for his three brown feet. He's one and a half years old, he's quite friendly, he's got big brown eyes and long eyelashes, oh, and banana-shaped ears, of course.'
'Banana-shaped?'
'Yes - and very small feet. All llamas have tiny feet, compared to their size - Lluis is about five foot two inches tall, but he's still a growing llama.'
'Indeed.'
'They don't like getting wet; and they like eating paper, and card.'
'Really. Well miss, I think that's enough about llamas for now, thank you,' said PC Wilson hastily, looking at Zazie as though she was a bit strange, 'but one thing’s for certain.'
'What's that?'
'If he looks like you’ve just said he does, it won’t be hard to find him!’
As she walked back along Curzon Close, Zazie felt alone and unhappy. She knew she had to do something about finding Lluis. She didn’t think the police would find him.
Everybody was talking, but all the time Lluis was getting further and further away, and he might even be in trouble! He was a very kind and friendly young llama, but he was only one and a half and he’d never been outside the Wildlife Park.
He could be anywhere! He could be in trouble! Tomorrow was the first day of the school holidays but she didn’t feel happy about it. She felt she had to do something. Lluis was her friend, and Zazie wanted to help him.
- 9 -
So, Lluis The Llama.
It began in 1997.
My wife was heavily pregnant with our first child and I started thinking how great it would be to be a successful author, now that I was going to be a father. Yes, fame and money would solve a lot of problems!
My wife humoured me; she was quite busy. She asked me why I didn't consider writing a children's story this time, instead of going on about 1979 again? Yes, but what kind of story do children like to hear?
"How about a llama who escapes from a children's farm - a Peruvian llama?"
So I read an excellent book about llama husbandry, which I got out of the library. Even I knew that llama husbandry wasn't about marrying a llama, although you can do that, if you want to.
Yes, along came Along Came a Llama by Ruth Janette Ruck.
This is a lovely book and shows you how llamas are intelligent, creatures with a good sense of humour but a little errr, stubborn. By the time I had read this, I thought I knew llamas very well.
So, whilst my wife was getting nearer and nearer to the maternity ward, I was in a world of llama-plotting and furniture vans. I'm sure it was all just denial and escape from responsibility at the time. After all, I was about to become a childrens' writer, no less!
Our daughter was born and my world exploded (in a good way) and I think I finished the story by early 1998. I wasn't about to give up, whatever the distractions.
I sent it out to the usual suspects - a synopsis; sample chapters etc etc. The bottomless supply of postage stamps and return SAE's, and it came back, of course, without an agent or publisher.
Then it went into the loft for a while, along with The Rusting Prizes (see above), but then after a few years of not being a famous writer in any way and after the arrival of our second child, I had an idea!
It was quite a long story with no pictures, Oh, that I could draw like The Tiger Who Came to Tea, but I couldn't draw like him!
My father-in-law could, though.
He'd been an architect before he retired, and now I started asking him about it,
"Just think, Bill, your grandchildren will have a book by their Dad with drawings by their Grandpa!"
I kept on at him, mercillesly.
Where I had the audacity and the temerity to push a rejected story, I just don't know; pehaps it was lack of sleep.
Anyway, in the end, Bill, my father-in law, produced a series of beautiful drawings to
illustrate the story.
He'd had to read the whole thing, I could tell, and he'd not just provided illustrations but beautiful A3 sized watercolours.
He had worked very hard and I still feel guilty about twisting his arm.
Somehow I never got round to integrating the beautiful illustrations he'd done into the text and getting it out there. There were so many other things going on and who had the time to start scanning paintings and dealing with the costs of colour printing?
So I waited.
But life has a habit of rolling on,
and one day Bill passed away at the age of 89. You could not meet a kinder, lovlier man; so I'm so glad the children knew and loved him, and he them.
However....the Llama project remained unfinished. So, this year in 2021, I am pleased to get it 'out there'!
That's why it's Lluis the Llama 1997 and 2021.