Lawyer and author Peter Reddy let loose his imagination after spotting a camel in a paddock and ended up giving her a name and writing a children’s book about her. Photo: John Thistleton.
In the never-ending quest to clear our Australian bush of feral animals, a Goulburn author has found an unlikely character for his debut children’s novel.
An accomplished author of two non-fiction adult reference books, Torture: What You Need To Know and Peace Operations and Restorative Justice: Groundwork for Post-conflict Regeneration, Peter Reddy happened on his latest character by accident.
“I like to think I’m more on the lighter side of life than the dark side,” Peter says, explaining his leap from two grim titles to Humps – The Adventures of Shirley Chameau – Australian Camel.”
Shirley and a children’s book came to him while living in Gunning while working as a lawyer in Canberra. He commuted from the village to the national capital with a friend, Terri (Therese) Nash.
“We would travel through Gundaroo and between Gundaroo and Sutton you would always see on the right-hand side alpacas and in there one day we saw this camel,” he said. “Coming back in the afternoon, we would be looking for this camel.
“I said, ‘That’s Shirley’. I don’t know why. Shirley Chameau [pronounced Sham oh – French for camel].”
For several years, Peter and Terri kept their eyes peeled for Shirley, and speculated on her whereabouts whenever she was out of sight.
Several years later, after Terri left Gunning and resettled at Young, Peter contacted her to organise a visit. Arriving in the cherry capital, he saw a camel in someone’s backyard and told Terri, resuming their speculation on how ‘’Shirley’’ had found her way to a backyard within the town limits of Young.
“There would be a story in this, you know,” Peter said.
Soon he found himself reading Hemingway’s guide to writing a novel and reflecting on a previous weekend seminar he had attended while writing his PhD on peacekeeping and restorative justice. The seminar’s topic was how to make your thesis more readable.
As Shirley’s story developed, he focused on three essentials for his children’s book: a character, conflict and change.
Shirley is a young, independent camel and vastly different from the other camels, which stay together in their herd.
“Shirley wants to do her own thing,” Peter said. “She goes out around the country on her own quite often and comes back to her extended family herd group occasionally.
“She is a dromedary – one hump – and bumps into this bactrian – two-humped – camel and says, “Oh, g’day, how are you going?” He is bigger, rude and so arrogant Shirley spits at him and trots off.
Illustrator Elena Leong shows Shirley (right) catching up with her extended family and being so happy she has a sneaky spit. Photo: John Thistleton.
She knows she is a feral animal. While out on her own, she dwells on animals brought from other countries – cats, dogs, pigs and horses – and is saddened to learn of the price they’re paying for their unpopularity. Despite being introduced to Australia to help people, they’re poisoned, trapped and hunted from the air.
Reunited with her herd, Shirley and her camel friends are disturbed by the deafening roar of an approaching helicopter with armed hunters on board intent on culling the scattering animals below.
Wounded, Shirley has to escape the danger and struggles on for survival, finding help from two unexpected sources who broaden her understanding of life around her.
Suitable for upper-primary and secondary students and young adults, the 36-page book offers a friendly introduction to the quirks of camels (long eyelashes and nostrils that close, keeping dust out in fierce windstorms, for example).
“I’ve made sure everything I have said about them is correct,” Peter said. “Children will learn about camels, a little history of Australia, and a little about feral animals.”
Self-publishing his book, Peter short-listed 10 artists from the Illustrators Australia website in January and gave them a brief before settling on the talented Elena Leong from Port Stephens.
“She was one of the few artists who could do the graphic artist’s work as well,” Peter said.
He has received much feedback from friends and encouragement from the excitement of children reading Humps. Asked for her response, the 13-year-old daughter of a friend from Canberra said: “Are you writing another one? I want to know what happens next.”
He already has a working title for the sequel, and we can expect the unexpected.
To order your copy of Humps (recommended retail price $16.99), email the author at: [email protected].
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