Your Pedigree Chum, Short Books
"The Missyplicity Project was formed in 1998 to clone Missy, a Husky-Border Collie cross, for her rich, anonymous owners who can't bear the thought of her going paw-up at the end of her dog-days. The BARC project (really), headed by Lou Hawthorne, is pioneering the research in Texas, and so Langton, a British journalist, travels to meet Hawthorne and Missy herself. What he finds, and describes with playful relish and an alert eye for kitsch excess, are the trials and absurdities of commercial science. At Genetic Savings and Clone, the world's first commercial pet-gene bank, he hears of people writing letters who have their dead pet in the deep-freeze (too late, sadly); one well-intentioned, misguided stick-thrower hopefully sent a turd. The cloning remains a logistical lottery, and so the book closes with no new Missy, but Langton uncovers tantalising speculation and coincidences about the identity of Missy's owners that satisfyingly wag this sparky, impudent tale." --David Vincent (Amazon UK)
Last Call For the Dining Car, Telegraph Books
Contribution: Romance of Riding the Freight Trains is Shattered by the Hobo From Hell
"By turns hilarious and alarming, this is armchair travel at its very best and the perfect book, indeed, for a long train journey."