A children’s book celebrating the life of Second World War sea dog Bamse has set sail for the bookshelves this week.
Bamse became famous more than 70 years ago as a crew member of the Norwegian Navy who would regularly take part in football matches, round up sailors from local pubs at the end of the day and is even credited with stopping bar fights and a knife attack at Dundee docks.
On a visit to Montrose two years ago, hosted by author and historian Andrew Orr, Anna Mandell was so struck by the brave St Bernard’s story that she decided to write a book about him.
She said: “What enchanted me was when the sailors went to the pub, Bamse would know when they should be back on board.
“He would get on the bus and go and get them out of the pub and take them back to ship. In the end, because he made a nuisance of himself on these buses, he got his own bus pass.
“The idea was he was more of a comfort but he saved a sailor from the water and another from being attacked so he was very brave.
“When he died at Montrose the feeling for him was so great he got his own grave.”
She added: “I have ideas for the second book already.”
Husband Peter commissioned artist Richard Maby to do a cartoon for her after their visit and they decided to turn the idea into a full-size children’s picture book.
Peter said: “The art style is very reminiscent of period classics like the Adventures of Tintin, or some of DC Thomson’s comics.”
Anna invented some new adventures for Bamse for her book and Richard came up with the detailed pictures.
Every image shows Bamse wearing a hat as he had a particular love of headwear.
Anna, who spent years designing and making fancy dress outfits in her home village of Moulton Chapel in Lincolnshire, even planted the 17-acre Bamse’s Wood in the Lake District to offset the ecological impact of printing her book.
The first orders are now with Amazon’s Fife distribution centre and copies are also available through Waterstone’s and all good bookshops.