The Power of the Cat

Ann Walker was born on a farm in the English Midlands. All her life she has been surrounded by animals; dogs, cats, ponies, birds. Her first published work was in the British magazine PONY. As a freelance Journalist she wrote on many subjects but her first full-length book was called GUIDE TO CATS, this was followed by YOUR CAT published by Collins.

After working in Wales, Paris, London and Oxford she married a farmer and life once more was filled with animals. In 1968 she and her husband moved to Tasmania with 3 children, a cat and a dog. Leaving behind their large animal family was a huge wrench but by the time they moved again, to mainland Australia in 1972, the famous Keysoe Donkey Stud had been formed, the story of its founding is told in the book A JOY OF WILD ASSES.

Continuing her freelance Journalism, Ann wrote widely for various magazines in Australia, England and America and at the suggestion of one of her editors wrote AUSTRALIAN DONKEYS. The animal family continued to grow and in the 1980s Ann wrote a popular monthly column on animals called TALK WITH THE ANIMALS. From this came another full length book by the same name published in Australia by Nelson (also sold in Norwegian and Swedish translations). Nelson followed this with the publication of another cat book, CATS COMPANY.

Ann also wrote on other subjects that intrigued her, developing psychic powers in THE INTUITIVE JOURNEY and LIVING TAROT, both of which were published in Australia first and then in England by Capall Bann. For twenty years Ann was in business, first with a saddle shop and then with a bookshop specialising in New Age material. Ann taught Tarot and conducted workshops as well as having many visiting psychics. Animals were still of supreme importance; on the staff of the bookshop was Tara, a Siamese cat. Out of her growing conviction that animals are no different to us (they feel and think and above all are spiritual beings) came the book THE MYSTIC LIFE OF ANIMALS published by Capall Bann in England and the more practical YOUR TALKING PET published in both Australia and England.

With her children all grown, and retirement from active business life, Ann was able to devote more time to her other love, writing fiction. As Louise Pakeman she has now has 9 novels published and a collection of short stories. Animals often feature in her books and two of the stories in TIME AWAY (published in Australia by Ginninderra Press) are about a cat and a dog. Download and read the title story from this collection.

Ann lives in rural Victoria with a large family of cats, dogs and Bantams and a very small pony. Her most recent novel, published in England by Robert Hale, is TELL ME NO LIES followed now with THE POWER OF THE CAT.