LITTLE BULL ON COW HILL Fort William’s Cow Hill and the adventures of its imaginary animal residents are the subjects in a recently published children’s book by a local author. Rhona Douglas, who has looked out on the hill from her Inverlochy home for more than three decades, came up with the idea for Little Bull on Cow Hill after a wrist operation which left her temporarily dependant on using only one hand. As she sat in her chair reading from her iPad she looked up to the hill and the idea came to her. She started typing using, as she said, ‘only one finger’ and so the book was born. Despite being restricted to one-finger typing, the words flowed and Archie the Bull came to life, with friends Mo, Mairi and Hector the Haggis. Aimed at nursery to early primary children, the characters feature names from people in Rhona’s life: Archie, being her grandfather and Mo, after her late sister Maureen. As the preface says, Rhona has spent her whole life in the Highlands of Scotland with her family living nearby. She was born with spastic paraparesis, which affects her legs but it has never held her back, always being in employment since leaving school. Over the years she has worked in admin, as a CCTV operator and presently as a retail assistant in Morrisons, now adding ‘author’ to her list of jobs. Another impetus in writing the book was the
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| july 2021
pending birth of her grandchild Ruaridh and the idea of being able to read it to him from a young age; which she has since been able to do, complete with dedication to the youngster in its pages. She said: ‘I always knew there was a book in me but until I started on this I just didn’t know what it was. I enjoyed writing it and my friends and family were supportive and helpful in printing out draft copies and reading through it. ‘I searched around for various publishers and was delighted when Austin Macauley came back to me saying it would publish it. ‘My view of Cow Hill every day was also an inspiration and I am hoping that many local children, especially in nursery and early education, will read it and relate to it as it involves an area and animals which they will be able to recognise as part of their own lives.’ Little Bull on Cow Hill priced at £9.99 is available from a number of local outlets and directly from the publisher, Austin Macauley.
