Welcome to Sylvia Murphy's Books

Sylvia Murphy was born in Palestine and brought up in war-torn England,one of a family rooted in conflict. She writes about these conflicts in her novels; her earliest books looked at family life from a humorous point of view but later the stories and their characters have taken on a darker side.

Sylvia's last book is a memoir rather than a novel. Tyfoon's Tale - the true story of a seafaring cat is her version of an animal memoir, a very popular genre at the moment. Publication date was the end of June and it is proving popular with a whole lot of people (see Review section.)

Sadly, soon after the launch of "her" book, Tyfoon died. She was very old (for a cat), she had lived with me for 20 years, and she was suffering from tumors. She needed to go on the journey to her last big sleep, but I miss her just the same - terribly.

To keep me going through this, I sat down and wrote another cat story - this one about a gang of feral cats I knew in Ibiza - It is called BIG GINGER - the life of a remarkable cat. Unlike TYFOON'S TALE, which is told about the cat relationship from the human point of view, in BIG GINGER I have taken the liberty of assuming that the cats can tell their own story and I have related what I think may have happened to them. I like the result. TRY IT AND SEE IF IT WORKS FOR YOU. BIG GINGER is now on sale through the usual outlets, and both books can be bought together at a modest discount, to fill some cat-lover's Christmas stocking.

Just to complete the story, this year I have also published TRUST - another family-based novel with some nixed-up characters in it. I have been working on this story for some time so I hope you like it. REVIEWS, PLEASE.

"Trinity: The Lifeboat Cat"

Trinity: The Lifeboat Cat

There really was a cat called Trinity. I haven't invented him, though I have changed him a bit. For a start, "he" was a "she". She really did have her kittens in someone else's house and very nearly lost them to the vet's needle. She lived (sort of) at the end of Trinity Terrace, where it runs into Camperdown. There is a store house there where the Trinity House men looked after the buoyage on the river. Most of them also volunteered to crew the lifeboat for the RNLI. I don't know if Trinity, or any other cat, ever went on the lifeboat, but this is only a story, after all. It all happened a long time ago and I wonder if anyone else remembers Trinity Cat. Just to make sure she is not forgotten, 10 percent of the cover price from every sale of this book will go to the RNLI.

Another featured book by Sylvia Murphy

BIG GINGER

A young Ginger cat finds himself separated from his mother on a foreign island. Determined to be re-united with her, he begins a journey around the island to find her.

This is the story of how he progressed in his quest as he grew up into a strong, independent cat. It's the story of the people he met along the way who helped him - Rocky, Liza, Corazon, the kind lady with the garden full of strays. It's also about those who threatened him, like the fishermen, Carlos the tabby and the menacing fur robbers.

Most of the characters here are people and cats I have really known. Some of the things that happened to them are figments of my imagination, but not many. There was a Ginger and a Rocky, both of whom distributed their genes liberally around the island. If you know what you are looking for you can easily find their descendants.