Ambrose Follows His Nose

Published to mark the centenary of his birth, a recently discovered adventure by the author behind The Water Horse and Babe the Gallant Pig, completed by his great granddaughter

Ambrose is a young rabbit with a very strong sense of smell - he’s as good at tracking as a bloodhound. He lives in a hutch with his three siblings and his parents, and is owned by Jim, who smells very strongly of cat, much to Ambrose’s disgust. Jim’s niece Biddy comes to stay and she desperately wants to take Ambrose home to be her pet. She plays with Ambrose every day, training him to track things with his extraordinary nose - which comes in very handy when his little sister Roly escapes the hutch and ends up down a foxhole. But Ambrose’s nose really saves the day when a fire breaks out in Jim’s cottage and Ambrose is the only one woken by the smell of smoke. Maybe Biddy’s wish to take Ambrose home will come true after all...

Dick King-Smith served in the Grenadier Guards during the Second World War, and afterwards spent twenty years as a farmer in Gloucestershire, the county of his birth. Many of his stories are inspired by his farming experiences. He wrote a great number of children’s books, including The Sheep-Pig (winner of the Guardian Award and filmed as Babe), Harry’s Mad, The Hodgeheg, Martin’s Mice, The Invisible Dog, The Queen’s Nose and The Crowstarver.At the British Book Awards in 1991 he was voted Children’s Author of the Year. In 2009 he was made OBE for services to children’s literature. Dick King-Smith died in 2011 at the age of eighty-eight.

Josie Rogers is the great granddaughter of Dick King-Smith. She was born in London but moved to the west coast of Scotland aged nine and has pretty much been there ever since. After a period working in France, she studied English literature and creative writing at the University of Glasgow.
As a child, Josie much preferred books to pets and people. Now, though, her favourite activities involve her family and their dogs. She writes prose and poetry, some of which has been published in various anthologies. When she isn’t writing or reading, she’s generally making something, like bread or a silly joke. She currently works as an editor in Glasgow.