Extract from Whittaker the Time-Travelling Cat The grass was so long that the girl didn抰 notice the cat at first. It was only when he spoke to her that she stopped and stared.
態e careful where you抮e walking,?said the cat.
慖抦 sorry,?said the girl. 態ut I抳e never met a talking cat before.?
慉pology accepted,?said the cat, who was bright ginger with a long tail and very green eyes.
慖抦 Whittaker,?said the cat.
慖抦 Laura,?said the girl. 慦hy don抰 you tell me how come you can talk??
慖抦 very busy,?said Whittaker, 慴ut I suppose I could spare you a few minutes. Have you got any tuna??
慛o,?said Laura, 慴ut I could get some.?
When Whittaker had eaten his tuna he told Laura that he was born in the Garden of Eden but decided that trees were boring and that he wanted to see the world. He lived in the Tower of Babel and that抯 where he learnt to speak every language on earth. Then he was one of the cats on Noah抯 Ark. Whittaker lived in a pyramid for a while and was worshipped by the Egyptians. But Whittaker didn抰 like being a god and stowed away on a ship to Rome. He became friends with the Emperor, a nice man who was very fond of his horse and went to Britain with him. The Romans had a fight with Boudicca who had red hair and a chariot. In Norfolk Whittaker made friends with a druid and he taught him cat language although the druid never became really good at it. Whittaker stayed in England because he liked rain and he lived in a henge which is lots of wooden sticks in a circle. When that got too cold he moved in with someone called Mother Julian who lived in a garden next to a church. She was very wise and said all shall be well. Whittaker was excellent at catching rats but there was still a plague. He helped rescue other cats during the Fire of London. He was Queen Victoria抯 favourite pet and he was the cat in Dick Whittington.
慪ou抳e done so many amazing things,?said Laura. 慦hat are you doing here??
慣his is my most difficult mission of all,?said Whittaker. 慏o you want to hear about it??
Headlines from the Cathbad Chronicles on 20 April 2020: Sunrise: 5.53 a.m.
Sunset: 8.07 p.m.
High tide: 12 a.m. （flood warning for Wells）
Education secretary Gavin Williamson said that he didn抰 know when schools would reopen.
The government has lost a boat full of equipment for hospitals.
Thing ate a cuttlefish on the beach.
Cathbad came home.
All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thought long and hard about setting a book in lockdown but, having written a book a year about Ruth for the last thirteen years, it seemed wrong to miss out 2020. The events of that terrible year are taken from various sources but mostly from my own diary.
Tombland, Norwich Cathedral and Augustine Steward抯 House all exist although the characters that people them in this book are imaginary. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King抯 Lynn is also real and, although Abbas is invented, I抦 sure that all its staff showed similar courage and compassion during the Covid-19 crisis. The story of Dawn Stainton is completely fictional as is Westway Surgery.
Congratulations to Eileen Gribbon for winning the CLIC-Sargent auction to have a character in this book named after her. All proceeds go to the charity, which supports teenagers with cancer, so huge thanks to Eileen and to anyone who took part. Eileen, I hope you like 憏our?character, especially the dancing. Thanks to Jan Adams, a previous winner, who appears again. Thanks also to Mary Williams for her insights into university life in lockdown and to Francesca Lewington for her memories of home-schooling. My heart goes out to all those involved in education during this time. Thanks to Aoife Martin for her help and advice.
Thanks, as ever, to my wonderful publishers Quercus Books and especially to my matchless editor, Jane Wood. It抯 not easy to produce books in lockdown but I have felt supported all the way. Huge thanks to everyone at Quercus, especially Florence Hare, David Murphy, Hannah Robinson and Hannah Winter. Thanks to Jon Butler for always believing in me and in this series. Thanks also to my fantastic agent, Rebecca Carter, and to all at Janklow and Nesbit in the UK and the US. Thanks to all the publishers around the world who publish these books with such care. Thanks to Ghost Design for the amazing cover and to Liz Hatherell for her meticulous copy-editing.