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Welcome Home, Bernard Socks
Fester Cat returns us to his favourite place in the world, and casts a wry but compassionate eye over events in the house on Chestnut Avenue. In the months following his death Fester watches his hapless housemates Paul and Jeremy cope with living in a quiet, catless house, and gradually come to the decision that they must adopt a new friend. It is at the eccentric cat rescue / charity shop THARG where they first meet the robust and sproingy young Bernard Socks – the black and white cat who is destined to inherit Fester’s place in their home and garden down beside the railway tracks.
But things are never simple and straightforward in this family, and there follow months of excitement, adventures and downright palavers. Bernard Socks escapes and discovers a ghostly cat parade that happens every Midsummer Night’s Eve in Levenshulme. He helps the boys through the sudden death of a close friend. He gradually settles into his new life on Chestnut Avenue and everything seems fine, as Autumn draws near.
But then the men from the roofing company arrive and set up scaffolding all over the terrace and pretty soon all the ceilings are falling in and it seems that the three boys’ precious home is never going to be the same again. By the end of the year everything feels as if it’s in jeopardy – even the health of Bernard Socks himself. But what can Fester Cat do to help, watching all of these disastrous events unfold? How can that tough little, much-missed companion still make his voice heard by the humans that he loves?
But things are never simple and straightforward in this family, and there follow months of excitement, adventures and downright palavers. Bernard Socks escapes and discovers a ghostly cat parade that happens every Midsummer Night’s Eve in Levenshulme. He helps the boys through the sudden death of a close friend. He gradually settles into his new life on Chestnut Avenue and everything seems fine, as Autumn draws near.
But then the men from the roofing company arrive and set up scaffolding all over the terrace and pretty soon all the ceilings are falling in and it seems that the three boys’ precious home is never going to be the same again. By the end of the year everything feels as if it’s in jeopardy – even the health of Bernard Socks himself. But what can Fester Cat do to help, watching all of these disastrous events unfold? How can that tough little, much-missed companion still make his voice heard by the humans that he loves?
Unknown Binding
First published December 5, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 3, 2015
"Recollection of our past together is the happiest of time travel." That is all that remains of Fester cat. Memories, the fur clinging to the chair in the beach house, and the echo of his voice in Paul's head. The grief is raw and real, but once you open your heart you realize that to shut off love from your life would be doing a disservice to the memory of the one you let in. Therefore Paul and Jeremy are hesitantly aware that perhaps there is room for a new furry face in their lives. At a quaint little charity shop that is also a pet rescue, full of the tat that Paul and Jeremy love most, from old disco records to moldering paperbacks, there's a room in the back full of cats. Paul has been looking at these cat's images online, thinking it was idle curiosity, but once at THARG realizing that it was more specific. They are there to meet a dapper tuxedoed cat named Sox. Despite much to-ing and fro-ing, Sox comes to live with them.
It's a new experience for all three of them. Paul and Jeremy have never adopted a cat, Fester having adopted them. Whereas the newly rechristened Bernard Socks has boundless energy with this new life full of rooms to explore as well as gardens and other cats not locked up! It will be an adjustment for all of them, but more than that, it will be a trial as their world quite literally collapses around them. With their cozy home now a disaster zone with a nice view of the looming storm clouds as their ceilings collapse. Yet they are able cope, to move forward, because of this new fury presence in their lives. They are literally rebuilding their lives post Fester and they have found a new companion for the journey. While Fester might not approve of them moving on so quickly, as he casts his wry gaze from a place that is in no way rainbow or bridge-like, he realizes that his boys need this new fury nucleus that is full of life and vim and vigor. Bernard Socks is there for his boys, and if he occasionally needs a little nudge in the right direction, that's why Fester's watching over them all. Ungow!
"You are my first, my last, my everything." The eternal question is how do you move on from your everything? When that little furry face is gone and it hurts to take a single breath. Most cat memoirs are about the cat that comes into these people's lives, makes everything wonderful, and then leaves his humans the better for having had him around. But this is false and the reason I usually avoid them like the plague. They don't tell the whole story. Despite all these narrative contrivances, life goes on and not in a golden glow of remembered love. Life doesn't stop when you lose the one you love. Cats didn't stop with the death of Fester or with the death of my Spotty. When I lost my kitty I was shocked that the world kept turning while I was stuck standing still, there in the backyard under the stars, unable to move forward.
I still have trouble with the moving forward, which makes me applause the braveness of this book. The Story of Fester Cat was about the joy Fester brought Paul and Jeremy. How despite his death, his time with them made them a family as well as raising the book above the standard fare with Fester's unique voice. While this first volume is bittersweet, knowing that Fester's time on earth is no more, this second volume is more about life. Life is messy and it's hard to pick back up the pieces. Yet Paul and Jeremy do. Paul exorcises his grief by writing Fester's story, though the coming year will try them more than once. Welcome Home, Bernard Socks is about moving on in the wake of disaster. Finding a way to keep moving forward. The bravery of embracing change and letting love in. Being willing to let time move forward and let another furry face into your heart, while not replacing the first. This book is warts and all dealing with grief and how life wins, no matter how hard it gets, which is something we all need to be reminded of.
That is why I connect to this book so strongly. Because Paul is letting us into his life. You see his pain and his joy, you see everything and it forges a strong connection between author and reader. Ironically this is a reason I usually don't read memoirs, even if written in honor of the more elevated feline. There's a lack of connection between the writer and their audience. They have created some sort of image and are there to perpetuate that. Not to offer insight or assistance, just to glorify themselves. Well, after The Story of Fester Cat I've started to revise my stance on memoirs. I saw that they could be a reflection of ourselves. I saw they could be full of truth and love and sadness and humor. This past year I have read more memoirs and autobiographies than I ever have. While I connected to none as strongly as I have Paul's writing, I have gotten more insight into myself then I would have thought possible. I also realize that my life could be a lot worse and am grateful for what I have.
But here, now, with Paul, what I connected with most is the weird little habits that develop after you have lost your furry friend. The secretly looking at adoptable cats online and forming attachments to them based on their stories and pictures. You know it's too soon, yet you can't help downloading a few of these pictures to look at later on your desktop. You might even have a cat folder on your computer, not that there's anything wrong with that. You spin scenarios in your head, you look at the hours of shelters and think, what would it hurt to drop by? Then you are shocked by how large cats are compared to the dainty gentleman that left you too soon. Thankfully for Bernard Socks Paul's habits moved into action, while mine are still in the realm of possibilities...
If there is one flaw in this book that I could point to it is that Fester's voice is so strong that it occasionally crowds out Bernard Socks. I love the little insights into the differences of their personalities. The distinguished old gentleman versus the rollicking teenager. The "ungow" versus the "weeee-oooooo!" The fact that Fester was more of a disco lover, while Bernard Socks is all about the jazz. I'm quite convinced my Spotty was into instrumentals, though not of the loud John Williams type, more the quite Sunday afternoon miniseries type, but he loved it when you changed the lyrics to songs to be all about him. Paul is just learning about Bernard Socks, getting to know him, so aside from one little talk between the two cats, Bernard hasn't found his voice yet and it's still Fester who is talking to Paul. Don't get me wrong, I love Fester's voice, I just wonder what Bernard Socks's voice will be like when he stops racing around and settles down. We all mature into our personalities and the newest inhabitant of Paul and Jeremy's house hasn't matured yet. So in other words, I see a third book in this style in Paul's future.
It's Paul's other books that brought me to him, through his fantasy writing where his stories wrap around you like a comfy blanket as he hands you a mug of spicy tea and is there for sympathy should you need it. Because Paul's books always have a ghost of himself flitting about the pages the transition from his fantasy writing to Fester's memoirs, which stayed mostly in the realm of reality, was a pretty seamless shift. The fantastical elements were missing but not missed, and if you're not a cat person and say that Fester's voice is pretty outlandish, well, obviously these books aren't for you. Yet there was a part of me that was excited to think he might one day combine his two styles. When I read in the book's blurb that "Bernard Socks escapes and discovers a ghostly cat parade that happens every Midsummer Night’s Eve in Levenshulme" I realized that time had come. Here Paul was ready to combine his two styles into something new.
"Deep underground in back gardens cat bones stir and start to remember." When I read these words a little frisson of excitement went across my skin. I was always the dorky cat kid who totally believed that Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats was real. I'd spend hours sitting in front of the piano with my cat on my lap trying to teach him how to play some of the songs. Because cats are magical beings that smell slightly of sulfur, and while most of their adventures are mundane, a true cat lover knows that not all of them are. And here Paul has brought to life one of those ghostly adventures, where all the cats who have left us come back to cavort on this one night every year. What it reminded me most of was the chapter "Danse Macabre" in Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book which is filled with eerie ghostly revelries. There is a melancholy frivolity to both that make them memorable. But what is most memorable is the knowledge Fester gains on his return, that cats can come back so long as someone remembers them. With this second volume ghostwritten by Fester he has guaranteed his place at the revelries for years to come. Ungow forever!
It's a new experience for all three of them. Paul and Jeremy have never adopted a cat, Fester having adopted them. Whereas the newly rechristened Bernard Socks has boundless energy with this new life full of rooms to explore as well as gardens and other cats not locked up! It will be an adjustment for all of them, but more than that, it will be a trial as their world quite literally collapses around them. With their cozy home now a disaster zone with a nice view of the looming storm clouds as their ceilings collapse. Yet they are able cope, to move forward, because of this new fury presence in their lives. They are literally rebuilding their lives post Fester and they have found a new companion for the journey. While Fester might not approve of them moving on so quickly, as he casts his wry gaze from a place that is in no way rainbow or bridge-like, he realizes that his boys need this new fury nucleus that is full of life and vim and vigor. Bernard Socks is there for his boys, and if he occasionally needs a little nudge in the right direction, that's why Fester's watching over them all. Ungow!
"You are my first, my last, my everything." The eternal question is how do you move on from your everything? When that little furry face is gone and it hurts to take a single breath. Most cat memoirs are about the cat that comes into these people's lives, makes everything wonderful, and then leaves his humans the better for having had him around. But this is false and the reason I usually avoid them like the plague. They don't tell the whole story. Despite all these narrative contrivances, life goes on and not in a golden glow of remembered love. Life doesn't stop when you lose the one you love. Cats didn't stop with the death of Fester or with the death of my Spotty. When I lost my kitty I was shocked that the world kept turning while I was stuck standing still, there in the backyard under the stars, unable to move forward.
I still have trouble with the moving forward, which makes me applause the braveness of this book. The Story of Fester Cat was about the joy Fester brought Paul and Jeremy. How despite his death, his time with them made them a family as well as raising the book above the standard fare with Fester's unique voice. While this first volume is bittersweet, knowing that Fester's time on earth is no more, this second volume is more about life. Life is messy and it's hard to pick back up the pieces. Yet Paul and Jeremy do. Paul exorcises his grief by writing Fester's story, though the coming year will try them more than once. Welcome Home, Bernard Socks is about moving on in the wake of disaster. Finding a way to keep moving forward. The bravery of embracing change and letting love in. Being willing to let time move forward and let another furry face into your heart, while not replacing the first. This book is warts and all dealing with grief and how life wins, no matter how hard it gets, which is something we all need to be reminded of.
That is why I connect to this book so strongly. Because Paul is letting us into his life. You see his pain and his joy, you see everything and it forges a strong connection between author and reader. Ironically this is a reason I usually don't read memoirs, even if written in honor of the more elevated feline. There's a lack of connection between the writer and their audience. They have created some sort of image and are there to perpetuate that. Not to offer insight or assistance, just to glorify themselves. Well, after The Story of Fester Cat I've started to revise my stance on memoirs. I saw that they could be a reflection of ourselves. I saw they could be full of truth and love and sadness and humor. This past year I have read more memoirs and autobiographies than I ever have. While I connected to none as strongly as I have Paul's writing, I have gotten more insight into myself then I would have thought possible. I also realize that my life could be a lot worse and am grateful for what I have.
But here, now, with Paul, what I connected with most is the weird little habits that develop after you have lost your furry friend. The secretly looking at adoptable cats online and forming attachments to them based on their stories and pictures. You know it's too soon, yet you can't help downloading a few of these pictures to look at later on your desktop. You might even have a cat folder on your computer, not that there's anything wrong with that. You spin scenarios in your head, you look at the hours of shelters and think, what would it hurt to drop by? Then you are shocked by how large cats are compared to the dainty gentleman that left you too soon. Thankfully for Bernard Socks Paul's habits moved into action, while mine are still in the realm of possibilities...
If there is one flaw in this book that I could point to it is that Fester's voice is so strong that it occasionally crowds out Bernard Socks. I love the little insights into the differences of their personalities. The distinguished old gentleman versus the rollicking teenager. The "ungow" versus the "weeee-oooooo!" The fact that Fester was more of a disco lover, while Bernard Socks is all about the jazz. I'm quite convinced my Spotty was into instrumentals, though not of the loud John Williams type, more the quite Sunday afternoon miniseries type, but he loved it when you changed the lyrics to songs to be all about him. Paul is just learning about Bernard Socks, getting to know him, so aside from one little talk between the two cats, Bernard hasn't found his voice yet and it's still Fester who is talking to Paul. Don't get me wrong, I love Fester's voice, I just wonder what Bernard Socks's voice will be like when he stops racing around and settles down. We all mature into our personalities and the newest inhabitant of Paul and Jeremy's house hasn't matured yet. So in other words, I see a third book in this style in Paul's future.
It's Paul's other books that brought me to him, through his fantasy writing where his stories wrap around you like a comfy blanket as he hands you a mug of spicy tea and is there for sympathy should you need it. Because Paul's books always have a ghost of himself flitting about the pages the transition from his fantasy writing to Fester's memoirs, which stayed mostly in the realm of reality, was a pretty seamless shift. The fantastical elements were missing but not missed, and if you're not a cat person and say that Fester's voice is pretty outlandish, well, obviously these books aren't for you. Yet there was a part of me that was excited to think he might one day combine his two styles. When I read in the book's blurb that "Bernard Socks escapes and discovers a ghostly cat parade that happens every Midsummer Night’s Eve in Levenshulme" I realized that time had come. Here Paul was ready to combine his two styles into something new.
"Deep underground in back gardens cat bones stir and start to remember." When I read these words a little frisson of excitement went across my skin. I was always the dorky cat kid who totally believed that Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats was real. I'd spend hours sitting in front of the piano with my cat on my lap trying to teach him how to play some of the songs. Because cats are magical beings that smell slightly of sulfur, and while most of their adventures are mundane, a true cat lover knows that not all of them are. And here Paul has brought to life one of those ghostly adventures, where all the cats who have left us come back to cavort on this one night every year. What it reminded me most of was the chapter "Danse Macabre" in Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book which is filled with eerie ghostly revelries. There is a melancholy frivolity to both that make them memorable. But what is most memorable is the knowledge Fester gains on his return, that cats can come back so long as someone remembers them. With this second volume ghostwritten by Fester he has guaranteed his place at the revelries for years to come. Ungow forever!
December 5, 2017
As someone who read and enjoyed the first book Fester Cat I enjoyed exploring further into the world of Fester's family and the arrival of Bernard Socks.
The author expands his view outwards from the cat centric 'Fester Cat' book to embrace his local community with warmth and wry humour. The atmospheric writing conjures up the odd shops, family life and relationships, drama, and the invisible world of cats with a rare insight and humanity.
This is a welcome addition to put on my shelf alongside Fester.
The author expands his view outwards from the cat centric 'Fester Cat' book to embrace his local community with warmth and wry humour. The atmospheric writing conjures up the odd shops, family life and relationships, drama, and the invisible world of cats with a rare insight and humanity.
This is a welcome addition to put on my shelf alongside Fester.
July 27, 2022
Loved returning to Fester, Paul and Jeremy and learning all the new adventures of Bernard Socks. I think the reason I adore books about animals and cats is that they really focus on the minutiae of life and you really feel a part of the story. I hope Paul and Jeremy's house was restored after all the problems from Mr Finn's foot and I hope Bernard is still happy and thriving.
March 28, 2021
So great to be with Fester again. The sad part is what a dreadful year that was for his owners. At least Bernard Socks is there for them.
The video surprise at the end made me cry
I want more Fester!
The video surprise at the end made me cry
I want more Fester!
January 27, 2016
In December of 2014, I introduced you to THE STORY OF FESTER CAT. See my review, HERE. Paul Magrs wrote of how Fester Cat came into his and his partner, Jeremy's lives. He shared of the uncanny way that Fester fit into their lives so seamlessly. When Fester died, they were lost and lonely. After struggling with how to introduce a new cat into their lives and weeks researching shelters, Bernard Socks was welcomed into their home. This is his story....or is it still Fester's?
Magrs still writes using Fester's voice like he did in THE STORY OF FESTER CAT, but this time, it is Fester as a cat ghost. Fester can stick around and keep an eye on his family because he is still loved and remembered. Once he is no longer remembered, he must leave and go on to the great cat beyond. So, Fester, even though he misses Paul and Jeremy and wants to continue to be their cat, knows that they need a new friend. He guides Bernard Socks into how to live with these gentlemen and how to live in a community of neighborhood cats.
Bernard Socks is nothing like Fester Cat, which at first is a bit frustrating to Paul, Jeremy, and even Fester Cat. But Bernard is much younger and energetic. Fester Cat shares his emotions while watching Bernard Socks lay in his favorite spots in the garden, or nuzzle up to Paul while sleeping. He shares about his first Midsummer Night, as a deceased cat, outside with all his old cat friends. After a night of exploring, Bernard Socks has Paul, Jeremy, and the entire neighborhood up all night worrying about him and looking for him. Fester Cat decides to take it upon himself to impart some wisdom and eventually encouraging Bernard Socks to return home and settle in with "the boys".
After losing our original cats and getting a new kitten a year later, I identified with a lot of the feelings and insecurities of starting over with a new cat. Paul Magrs has a talent for writing and sharing true emotions from both the cat and human's point of view. I think Fester Cat would be proud.
Favorite Quote:
"The books Paul has represent time, more than anything. All the time already spent, the hours expanding and recoverable at any given moment. They also represent time to come, in the form of the books he hasn't got round to reading yet. They stand for hundreds of hours of perfect happiness. Hours lying more or less still and content, with a cat sprawled on top of you, of course."
Magrs still writes using Fester's voice like he did in THE STORY OF FESTER CAT, but this time, it is Fester as a cat ghost. Fester can stick around and keep an eye on his family because he is still loved and remembered. Once he is no longer remembered, he must leave and go on to the great cat beyond. So, Fester, even though he misses Paul and Jeremy and wants to continue to be their cat, knows that they need a new friend. He guides Bernard Socks into how to live with these gentlemen and how to live in a community of neighborhood cats.
Bernard Socks is nothing like Fester Cat, which at first is a bit frustrating to Paul, Jeremy, and even Fester Cat. But Bernard is much younger and energetic. Fester Cat shares his emotions while watching Bernard Socks lay in his favorite spots in the garden, or nuzzle up to Paul while sleeping. He shares about his first Midsummer Night, as a deceased cat, outside with all his old cat friends. After a night of exploring, Bernard Socks has Paul, Jeremy, and the entire neighborhood up all night worrying about him and looking for him. Fester Cat decides to take it upon himself to impart some wisdom and eventually encouraging Bernard Socks to return home and settle in with "the boys".
After losing our original cats and getting a new kitten a year later, I identified with a lot of the feelings and insecurities of starting over with a new cat. Paul Magrs has a talent for writing and sharing true emotions from both the cat and human's point of view. I think Fester Cat would be proud.
Favorite Quote:
"The books Paul has represent time, more than anything. All the time already spent, the hours expanding and recoverable at any given moment. They also represent time to come, in the form of the books he hasn't got round to reading yet. They stand for hundreds of hours of perfect happiness. Hours lying more or less still and content, with a cat sprawled on top of you, of course."
December 26, 2015
A Joyfully Jay review.
3.5 stars
Because The Story of Fester Cat was such an emotional book, having me in tears more than once, I had high hopes for the sequel. What I found was that the story had an odd flow, being narrated by Fester, as in the first book, and as a result, I didn’t feel the same connection to Socks that was so prominent in Fester Cat.
The focus of the story was really about Paul and Jeremy’s relationship, how Fester’s death affected them as individuals and a couple, and how time allowed them to consider another cat. It also showed how Socks’ presence in their lives had not only a positive short-term impact, but also helped when their home, and lives, were falling apart.
In this respect, the heavy emotion was between Paul and Jeremy, how the depression and sorrow enveloped them, and how the stress of the damage to their home threatened to tear them apart with one doozie of a fight. Getting to know the guys in depth was interesting, but it was not what I was expecting, either based on the previous book, or the title. I was totally expecting Socks to be front-and-center, and he was more comic relief, while Fester acted as a kind of puppet master, overseeing and affecting a change to all of the lives on Chestnut Avenue.
At one point was that there was a flashback of sorts narrated by Fester that set up for the second half of the year, but it felt disjointed and a bit rambling. I also found the section dealing with the feline midsummer’s celebration to be odd, and did not feel like it advanced the plot significantly.
Read Jason’s review in its entirety here.
3.5 stars
Because The Story of Fester Cat was such an emotional book, having me in tears more than once, I had high hopes for the sequel. What I found was that the story had an odd flow, being narrated by Fester, as in the first book, and as a result, I didn’t feel the same connection to Socks that was so prominent in Fester Cat.
The focus of the story was really about Paul and Jeremy’s relationship, how Fester’s death affected them as individuals and a couple, and how time allowed them to consider another cat. It also showed how Socks’ presence in their lives had not only a positive short-term impact, but also helped when their home, and lives, were falling apart.
In this respect, the heavy emotion was between Paul and Jeremy, how the depression and sorrow enveloped them, and how the stress of the damage to their home threatened to tear them apart with one doozie of a fight. Getting to know the guys in depth was interesting, but it was not what I was expecting, either based on the previous book, or the title. I was totally expecting Socks to be front-and-center, and he was more comic relief, while Fester acted as a kind of puppet master, overseeing and affecting a change to all of the lives on Chestnut Avenue.
At one point was that there was a flashback of sorts narrated by Fester that set up for the second half of the year, but it felt disjointed and a bit rambling. I also found the section dealing with the feline midsummer’s celebration to be odd, and did not feel like it advanced the plot significantly.
Read Jason’s review in its entirety here.
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