Skip to main content

Some of you already know about my Mum's poem..   I have talked about it on here before and on the old channel 4 site.

 

My mum wrote a poem at school...     This poem

 

If You Should Meet A Crocodile

by Christine F Fletcher

 

 

If you should meet a crocodile
Don't take a stick and poke him;
Ignore the welcome in his smile,
Be careful not to stroke him.
For as he sleeps upon the Nile,
He thinner gets and thinner;
Whene'er you meet a crocodile
He's ready for his dinner.

 

 

we only discovered it had been published hundreds & hundreds of times worldwide 6 years ago (I discovered it in a book I was reading to my son), but it always had "anon" by it.

 

 

Claiming it at hers has been really really really difficult.   more difficult than you'd think.    Its taken us 6 years!  (6 years where the publishing houses have kept churning it out... refusing to accept it as hers).

 

Finally..   FINALLY!!    We've done it.    All but 2 publishers now accept it as hers.   I have now seen the first few books with it in print with her name under it.   Now the final few publishers will have to recognise her as the author!

 

Linky to a recent review about her story.

 

Linky to her website telling her story

 

 

 

I am soooo happy about this! 

 

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Originally Posted by Antiope:

You've got 20 years to make some cash then

Yeah...   I know 

 

 

Tis ok..   the old girl has churned out a few more "If you should meet...." poems  ..   with any luck we might get them published too.

 

(and...  she's splitting any royalties with meeeee!   and leaving them in her will to me... should that be relevant)

 

BUT... its not about the money 

 

 

  its really not!   (but you know....   

Dirtyprettygirlthing

She's had some amazing people contact her through the website...  one of them is a Dutch artist who wrote to tell her he used to be a teacher and loved her "little gem of a poem".

 

he loved it so much he had painted her crocodile and sent her a digital copy.

 

The first couple of prints since she has got the poem credited to her are educational books, and she waived the royalties for them, which I think is nice 

 

Dirtyprettygirlthing
Originally Posted by Dirtyprettygirlthing:
Originally Posted by Rawky-Roo:

How do you pronounce 'Whene'er'? 

 

wenair

oooh get me quoting meself... 

 

 

but I should add...  

 

this is one of the things about the poem..    It was originally titled Whene'er You Meet A Crocodile..   cos my mum couldn't get Whenever to fit the rhythm of the poem.

 

It never occured to her to use..  "If you should meet a crocodile"..   The title was changed to that over the years as it was reprinted.

Dirtyprettygirlthing

Thank You everyone.

 

 

I will also add..    its a real real shame that the teacher did not see fit to credit this to my mother at the time (it was first published less than a year after she wrote it).

 

My Mum came from an extremely unhappy and deprived home...    something like this would have been really something and potentially life changing to her back then.

 

But....  I am really glad she has it now...   she was a stay at home mum, following in the shadows of my dads career.     His brother even once said to her "are you ever going to do anything with your life" (grrrrrrr)....    and I know that over the years she has felt (as housewifes & mums do) that she had little for people to respect her for.... 

 

tis why I am really really pleased for her... she has this little bit of immortality now! 

 

(love you Mum....     if you read this cos google brings it up xxxxxx)

Dirtyprettygirlthing
Originally Posted by Zaphod:

or be taken in with its toothy grin  [or similar]

 

 

 

 

Z.

That was my first thought when I read it Z

 

Seriously, Ditty, I'm so happy for your mum and, as you say, she needed the affirmation that she would have received as a kid. Such a shame she had to wait but it's made it sweeter now

FM

Add Reply

×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×