Friends for Life
Full of anecdotal case-histories and told in her own unique voice, we see how Jan Fennell’s unique gifts have won her the admiration of dog lovers worldwide. Jan Fennell's unique gift has won her an international following. Her books, The Dog Listener and The Practical Dog Listener were instant best-sellers, and she became a house-hold name through her international success. In Friends For Life, Jan tells the story of the personal journey that led her to success – and the crucial part her canine companions played in her development. Jan reveals her bond with dogs was forged amid the personal sadness of her childhood in London, an often traumatic period when it seemed Jan's beloved pets were her only source of unconditional love. She goes on to describe her experiences as a young mother, struggling to establish herself in an unfamiliar – and sometimes hostile – rural Lincolnshire community. Jan’s story eventually turns into a charming country tale – a self-sufficient idyll, inhabited by colourful characters – both human and canine. But when life deals her a series of blows it is her dogs, once more, who provide Jan with her strength and inspiration, and an unexpected new lease of life. Friends For Life is filled with the charm, gentle humour and unquenchable humanity that so delights Jan’s fans. Its pages are alive with the scores of larger-than-life personalities – from clairvoyant Romany relatives to curmudgeonly farmers, happy-go-lucky circus bosses to saintly animal sanctuary owners – who have shaped Jan's eventful life. Above all, however, it is the story of one woman's struggle against the odds, and the life-long love affair that has been the key to her survival and ultimate triumph.
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JAN FENNELL
Friends for Life
HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
Published in paperback 2004
First published in the UK by HarperCollinsPublishers 2003
Copyright © Jan Fennell 2003
The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
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Ebook Edition © MAY 2019 ISBN: 9780008363444
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To all those who have helped make mewho I am
The past decade has seen my life transformed in constantly surprising ways. Since I began developing my ideas about understanding the inner language of dogs, I have been granted experiences I would never have imagined possible.
It may sound strange, but as I have travelled around both the UK and other parts of the world, the most striking difference has been the interest people have taken in what I have to say. To appreciate how significant that is, you must understand that for much of my early life, the idea that anyone would be interested in anything I had to say was unthinkable to me. So the fact that people wanted not only to listen to my ideas but to go deeper and to know about the experiences that had led to their development took quite some getting used to, I can tell you.
From the outset, I noticed that a handful of questions recurred again and again. When and why did I fall in love with dogs? What made them so special? How did a Londoner like me end up living in rural Lincolnshire? How did I come to look for a better, kinder way of living with our best friends? What gave me the strength and conviction to persevere with those ideas when the world seemed full of people ready to knock them down? It never ceases to surprise me how curious people are to know these things.
As I began to tell the stories that provided the answers to such questions, new, even more unlikely ones arose. Was I going to turn those stories into a book? When was I going to write my memoirs? My response to these was a hearty, genuinely incredulous laugh. I simply dismissed the idea.
It was during the period I was completing my second book, The Practical Dog Listener, when I’d been asked about my early days for what seemed like the thousandth time, that I was forced to think again. I realized that perhaps, after all, I should write something that provided the answers to all these questions.
The result is this memoir, the story of my journey from London to rural Lincolnshire, from girlhood to motherhood, from ignorance to enlightenment – and occasionally, in all three cases, back again.
It has not been an easy undertaking. Subconsciously I know one of the reasons I put off doing this was a fear of awakening the ghosts of the past. On more than one occasion I was taken aback by the power and potency of the memories I revived.
The process of writing this book has confirmed several important things, however. One of them is that – for good or bad – I would not have reached the point I have in my life, without the experiences I have had. Nor would I have got here without the special friendships I have made along the way. There have been friends and family who have played their crucial parts. I have been blessed with two wonderful – at times inspirational – children. I hope I have done them all justice in the pages that follow.
