The Ship’s Cat

Alex Howard

FELINE heroics on the world’s mightiest oceans are guaranteed to be lapped up by cat lovers in a cosy seafaring odyssey starring a lovable street stray from London searching for love, friendship… and his forever home.

Alex Howard (pictured below), a TikTok favourite and bestselling author of much-loved time-travelling adventure, The Ghost Cat, charms and enchants us again with this feel-good cat’s ‘tail’ of resilience, belonging and keeping your head above water whilst sailing into the unknown.

From the sun-drenched harbours of the Mediterranean to the bustling decks of ocean racers and narrowboats of Edinburgh’s Union Canal, readers will be purring with delight when they get their ‘paws’ on one magical cat’s epic mission to sail the seven seas.

Archie is a street-savvy London cat who has no faith in humans. A cat can only trust himself, after all. But when he takes shelter from the cold near an airfield, he accidentally finds himself stowed away on a flight to Turkey. What he doesn’t yet know is that it will launch him into an epic sea voyage… one that will take him farther than he’s ever been and challenge everything he thinks he knows about ‘home.’

Because after landing in Turkey, he stumbles into a fishing boat in a quiet cove and discovers he is no ordinary feline. With his unique polydactyl paws, each with an extra toe, Archie realises he is not only a useful companion aboard fishing boats and luxury yachts, but also something of a lucky talisman.

Yet beneath the viral fame and whispered tales of ‘the magical ship’s cat,’ Archie yearns for something deeper… a forever human who will love him not as a talisman but as a companion. Determined to return to the shores of Blighty, Archie must rely on the generosity – and vessels – of humans to make his way home and in doing so, becomes a legend among sailors as he travels. It may be luck that drives Archie on his great seafaring odyssey around the world but it will be love which eventually sends him home… not to some place, perhaps, but to someone.

Witty, uplifting and inspired by Howard’s own experiences on a transatlantic voyage in which he crewed on a ‘leaky’ sailing boat and encountered storms and many ‘antics,’ The Ship's Cat is guaranteed to find port in the heart of every reader!
(Black & White Publishing, hardback, £16.99)