Animals come to rescue of biography market

The story of Casper the commuting cat, set to be published this autumn, is the latest in a slew of animal memoirs which are being heralded as the saviours of a beleaguered biography market.

The much-loved Casper, who used to ride the Number Three bus around Plymouth, died last month in a road accident - and the publishing world was quick to pounce, with Simon & Schuster snapping up world rights in his story late last week. "His story is unique and [Casper's owner] Susan has received emails and letters from all over the UK and as far away as Argentina and Australia," said Simon & Schuster's Nigel Stoneman, who met her last week.

And Casper isn't the only pet to tell his tale: last year also saw publication of Endal, about Gulf War veteran Allen Parton's Labrador puppy; Dewey, about a cat who lived in an Iowa library; A Home for Rose, about a Border collie puppy; and Peter Gethers's A Cat Called Norton, subtitled "the true story of an extraordinary cat and his imperfect human". The books all did well, with Dewey racking up sales of almost 100,000 copies in 2009, according to the Bookseller magazine, A Home for Rose almost 35,000 and Endal over 50,000.



Bestselling horror author Dean Koontz also made a venture into the genre last year with the story of life with his golden retriever Trixie, while other animal titles to do well included Rupert Isaacson's The Horse Boy, in which he details the healing power of horses on his autistic son, actor Martin Clunes's tale of his cocker spaniels, A Dog's Life, and a reissue of A Lion Called Christian.

Sales of celebrity memoirs might be down, says the Bookseller, while the misery memoir bubble has burst, but what it dubs "animalit" helped to save the biography genre last year. "The misery memoir market is a bit saturated – people are tired of it, whereas the pet memoir moves the genre into a sweet, uplifting, fun area," said senior reporter Graeme Neill. "Particularly now, the last thing people want to do is wallow in other people's misery."

Along with Casper's tale, additions to pet literature coming up later this year include Homer's Odyssey, about Gwen Cooper's adoption of an abandoned eyeless kitten, and another episode in the life of Norton the cat from Peter Gethers. "It all kicked off with Marley & Me," said Neill (the Bookseller puts 2009 sales of John Grogan's story of his family's life with Marley at over 110,000 copies). "It's a very British thing – we're a nation of animal lovers, so it fits perfectly into that."