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Felix The Railway Cat

This book would have been impossible to write without the generous support of the team at Huddersfield station. Angie Hunte, truly a Felix favourite, was especially and repeatedly helpful – and it was a genuine pleasure to see the joy in Felix’s fluffy body as she scampered along the platform with Angie and came out from her hidey-holes the moment she heard her voice. Gareth Hope made a special trip to Huddersfield to contribute to this book, and also kindly dug out documents and photographs to assist with the writing. Special thanks also to Andrew McClements, Andy Croughan, Angela Dunn, Chris Bamford, Dave Chin, Mark Allan, Alan Hind and Jean Randall for generously giving up significant time for interviews; and to Chris and Joanne Briscoe for taking the time to recall Felix’s first eight weeks as a kitten in their home. I am also grateful to Pauline for looking after me during the night shift at Huddersfield station, and to all those other members of the team who kindly filled in surveys, sent photographs, replied to emails or shared anecdotes: Adam Carter, Amanda/Chrissy, Christine, Craig, Dave Rooney, Jon Ironmonger, Liam, Louise Jacobs, Michael Ryan, Rachel Stockton and Sam Dyson.

At Penguin Books, a massive thank you to editor Fiona Crosby for brilliantly spotting Felix’s literary potential and for making this book happen. Thanks to all at TPE for letting Felix tell her story, especially Sarah Ford, Jack Kempf, Sarah Cunningham, Lisa Gannon, Catherine Unsworth. Last, but by no means least, thanks to Beth Gribble for identifying the plants in Billy’s garden, and to my husband Duncan for all his support.

The following books, newspapers and websites were consulted in order to bring Felix’s story to life:

Books:

A Century of Huddersfield: Events, People and Places over the Last 100 Years by Brian Haigh and Susan Gillooley (Sutton Publishing, 2000)

Golden Years of Huddersfield: Local Nostalgic Photographs from the 1940s, 50s and 60s by Diane Harpwood and Phil Holland (True North Books, 1998)

Huddersfield: Home Town Memories by Melvyn Briggs and John Watson (The Derby Books Publishing Company Ltd, 2011)

Newspapers:

Daily Mail, Guardian, Huddersfield Examiner.

Websites:

bbc.co.uk/news, bluecross.org.uk, buzzfeed.com, districtdavesforum.co.uk, factretriever.com/cat-facts, Felix’s Facebook page, manchesterandsalfordrspca.org.uk, mentalfloss.com, purr-n-fur.org.uk [an especially brilliant resource on the history of station cats], rspca.org.uk, vets-now.com.

Photos:

Photo section images provided by Andrew McClements, Gareth Hope, Al Richardson, TransPennine Express, and the Felix the Huddersfield Station Cat Facebook page.

Finally, thank you to Felix, the Huddersfield station cat.

THE BEGINNING

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MICHAEL JOSEPH

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