Lynley Dodd’s Scarface Set Loose Again

New Zealand’s favourite scrappy cat returns, taking the ride of his life in author Lynley Dodd’s latest adventure, Scarface Claw, Hold Tight. Dodd is bringing the book to Perth’s Awesome Festival along with a free exhibition of her work titled, ‘The Life and Times of Scarface Claw’.

The basis for adventures Rotorua-born Dodd writes about are often animal antics she has been told or read about.

“One I tend to mention is for Hairy Maclary’s Bone, which is the second in the series, that came about from a definite happening,” Dodd, 76, explains.

Dodd says once she named her most well-known dog, Hairy Maclary, her stories demanded rhyme.

“I’ve certainly made life hard for myself but the stories do tend to suggest rhyme and the rhythm of the dog activities and what not,” she says.

Translating the popular children’s series while keeping the poetry and motion has been problematic.

“They have been translated in Russia – well of course if you’re looking at the Cyrillic alphabet it’s a bit difficult to know what’s being said,” she says.

“But it was possible to see the length of lines and say the unfamiliar words to yourself and realise that there was this same sort of rhythm. They are in Japanese and also Korean and there are Chinese editions as well and I haven’t a hope of knowing whether those are translated with the same sort of rhythm.”

The Awesome Festival is on from 30 September through 9 October.

Dodd lives in Tauranga.

Original article by Annelies Gartner, The West Australian, September 19, 2017.