Paul Gallico - Jennie

First published in the USA as The Abandoned in 1950

First published in Great Britain by Michael Joseph in 1950

This edition published by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2016

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Text copyright © 1950 by Paul Gallico. Copyright renewed 1978 by Virginia Gallico, Robert Gallico and William Gallico

Why You’ll Love This Book copyright © Vivian French 2011

Cover illustration © Chuck Groenik 2016

Cover design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2016

Paul Gallico asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007395194

Ebook Edition © 2016 ISBN: 9780007460526

Version: 2018-09-25

To the late Simon of the Amethyst

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Why You’ll Love This Book by Vivian French

Chapter One – How It Began

Chapter Two – Flight from Cavendish Square

Chapter Three – The Emperor’s Bed

Chapter Four – A Story is Told

Chapter Five – When in Doubt – Wash

Chapter Six – Jennie

Chapter Seven – Always Pause on the Threshold

Chapter Eight – Hoodwinking of an Old Gentleman

Chapter Nine – The Stowaways

Chapter Ten – Price of Two Tickets to Glasgow

Chapter Eleven – The Countess and the Crew

Chapter Twelve – Overboard!

Chapter Thirteen – Mr Strachan Furnishes the Proof

Chapter Fourteen – Mr Strachan’s Proof Leads to Difficulties

Chapter Fifteen – The Killers

Chapter Sixteen – Lost in the Clouds

Chapter Seventeen – Jennie Makes a Confession

Chapter Eighteen – Mr Grims Sleeps

Chapter Nineteen – London Once More

Chapter Twenty – The ‘Élite’ of Cavendish Square

Chapter Twenty-One – Reunion in Cavendish Mews

Chapter Twenty-Two – Jennie Makes a Decision

Chapter Twenty-Three – Lulu – or, Fishface for Short

Chapter Twenty-Four – The Informers

Chapter Twenty-Five – The Search

Chapter Twenty-Six – Jennie, Come Out

Chapter Twenty-Seven – The Last Fight

Chapter Twenty-Eight – How It All Ended

Keep Reading …

About the Author

About the Publisher

I can’t remember how old I was when I first read Jennie , but I do remember I couldn’t put it down. I told my friend Alison how brilliant it was and asked her if she wanted to borrow it, but she shook her head. “That’s a story for people who like cats,” she said, “and I like dogs.”

“But it’s a story about a boy called Peter,” I told her. “His mother’s always busy, and his father’s away a lot, and he’s lonely.”

Alison looked more interested. “Does he have adventures?”

“LOADS,” I said. “He gets into fights, and he goes travelling on a ship with an extraordinary crew, and he catches the most enormous rat—”

“YEUCH!”Alison made a face. “Why does he do that?”

“Didn’t I tell you?” I put the book on the table. “He runs after a kitten and gets knocked down by a coal lorry, and when he opens his eyes he discovers he’s a cat … but he doesn’t know how cats behave, so he has to learn. It’s Jennie who teaches him – and they have adventures together.”

Alison picked the book up, and flicked through the pages. “‘When in doubt – any kind of doubt – WASH!’” she read out loud, and laughed. “My brother HATES washing!”

“So did Peter,” I said. “But it’s different for cats. And it tells you why.”

“Is it a teachy book?”Alison looked suspicious. “I mean, does it pretend to be a story, but really it’s so you learn about cats?”

I thought about it. “No,” I said. “It’s much more about a friendship. Sometimes they get things wrong and get cross with each other, but they sort it out. You don’t learn stuff, but you do end up knowing exactly what it’s like being a cat, because of all the detail – like how they stretch and twist and jump, or how they clean themselves, or fight each other. It makes you really and truly feel as if you’ve lived in the world of cats, and understand the way they think. It’s so clever. And it’s funny, too.”

“Who’s your favourite character?”Alison wanted to know.

“Jennie, of course.” I was surprised she’d even asked. “And Captain Sourlies. He’s the captain of the ship they stow away on, and he weighs twenty-two stone, and he hates the sea. And big Angus, with fingers like sausages, who does embroidery. And Mr Grims—”

Alison held up her hand. “Don’t spoil it for me!” Then she turned to the beginning of the book, and started reading … and I never ever got my book back.

I’ve read Jennie lots of times since then (my mum bought me another copy!) and I enjoy it just as much – if not more – each time. These days, I’m sometimes reminded by a phrase or an expression that the book was published in 1950, but the story still grips me. At one point in his life Paul Gallico had twenty-three cats, and he obviously studied them with a real passion; that passion pours into his writing. He was also passionate about people, and the way they interact one with another. Every time I get to the end of the book (even though I’ve read it so often) I have to go and find a hanky. And I know exactly what I’d do if I was a cat, and someone saw me looking just a little bit silly …

I’d wash!

Vivian French

Vivian French is the author of over 200 children’s books, including the hugely popular Tiara Club series. She is also a playwright, storyteller and teacher of creative writing to children and adults.

Poussie, Poussie, Baudrons

“Poussie, poussie, baudrons,

Whaur hae ye been?”

“I’ve been tae London,

Tae see the Queen.”

“Poussie, poussie, baudrons,

Whit gat ye there?”

“I gat a guid fat mousikie,

Rinnin’ up a stair!”

“Poussie, poussie, baudrons,

Whit did ye dae wi’ it?”

“I pit it in ma meal-poke,

Tae eat tae ma breid.”

OLD SCOTTISH NURSERY RHYME

PETER GUESSED THAT he must have been hurt in the accident although he could not remember very much from the time he had left the safety of Scotch Nanny’s side and run out across the street to get to the garden in the square, where the tabby striped kitten was warming herself by the railing and washing in the early spring sunshine.

He had wanted to hold and stroke the kitten. Nanny had screamed and there had been a kind of an awful bump, after which it seemed to have turned from day to night as though the sun were gone and it had become quite dark. He ached and somewhere it hurt him, as it had when he had fallen running after a football near a gravel pile and scraped nearly all the skin from the side of one leg.