I was wondering why you made the tortoiseshell cat Bunter in the First Edition Library Series a male, considering those are really rare (only about 1 in 3,000) and usually sterile? Were you aiming to have a really rare cat (and 7 in a row, to boot!) or was it just not knowing?

Marty Wingate Thanks for tour question about Bunter the cat! Yes, male torties are rare, but I must fall back on the author's excuse of "that's just what he is." We use this about characters all the time--sometimes they come to us fully formed (as Ann Cleeves says about Vera) and we don't question it. Seven male Bunters in a row does seem like quite a feat, but that's across quite a few decades. Perhaps Lady Fowling had a backstory about torties--that's something I'll have to consider!

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