I took Pushkin to see Gerard, my wonderful vet, yesterday afternoon and after his examination he gave me some great news, which is that the lad is doing well.

I have just been told by Catnip, my publisher, that copies of the book, White Chin, will be available from this website from 26th July and I will post any orders immediately first class.

At last, I can announce that it will be published in August by Catnip and it will be a paperback at £6.99, with superb illustrations by France Bauduin, who drew the picture above which is on the jacket.

Its proper title is WHITE CHIN: the cat that walked by his wild lone.

The gentlest and most courteous of my four cats, my darling little Pushkin, is unwell.

He hasn’t been eating very much and what initially alerted me, he just kept hiding in odd places and generally behaving out of sorts.

With the grey skies of Autumn closing down on us, and the westerly gales hurling a blizzard of leaves past the windows - the Coach House Four have pretty much decided "that's it" for going outside.

I have to turf Dilly out in the afternoons, otherwise, being a Bengal, we have noisy nights with her prowling around shouting "Yeow, yeow, yeow" for no reason other than that she is wide awake and so should the rest of us be!

My friend the composer/songwriter Kevin Dean, who has a special relationship with cats and has written wonderful music in their honour wrote to me earlier this year about a particular cat, Tigger-Mu-Mu, who was much loved, but who sadly died in 2003. I wrote about her in Coach House Cats. But right now this further story from Kevin makes the hairs on the back of you neck stand on end.

Here it is in Kevin's own words:

"I just have to tell you what happened last night. My friend Colin popped round for a glass of wine. Colin originally looked after Tigger Mu Mu before she came to live with me. We were talking about her in depth and as we did, I glanced over to a framed photograph of the profile of her face which was standing on the floor.

In the UK Mothering Sunday is 22nd March. Why not give a mum you know the perfect little hardback? Marilyn will be delighted to sign and dedicate it with a special message.

All you have to do is click into the buy now button to the right.

Marilyn will be signing all four books at The Institute in Kirkby Lonsdale at this year's Christmas Fair from 10am until 5pm on 6th and 7th December, but you can order them signed and dedicated just as easily by clicking into the buy now button to the right.

A facility for you to request a dedication comes up before you finish the checking out procedure.