Skip to main content

Scotland’s famous cat Hamish McHamish has his own book series

Hamish McHamish, St Andrews’ famous cat is getting his own book series.

There are four books that follow Hamish on his adventures, plus a colouring book, and they are all on sale already. Proceeds from book sales go to The Hamish Foundation, a Scottish local charity which funds projects to support young people and community initiatives within St Andrews.

The author Robert Lewis Heron, is an award-winning Scottish poet, author and artist, who lives in the USA since 2001. He has published fiction and poetry, among others, but this was his first time writing about the adventures of a cat.

The author explained: “Last Christmas, [our American friends] the Beauliers were telling us about their work with the beach wheelchairs project in St Andrews, and we were so taken with everything they had done. As we got more information from them about The Hamish Foundation, we knew we wanted to help in some way.”

He continued: “We heard all about Hamish and, in early June, we discussed with the Beauliers the idea of doing a children’s book about Hamish McHamish – The St Andrews Cat. That night, Hamish was in my dreams and I went to my studio the next morning and started his story.

“One story led to another and the series of books following his adventures moved from dream to publication.”

Debbie MacCallum of The Hamish Foundation said: “We are absolutely amazed and grateful to Robert for coming up with this idea and turning it into reality. The donation of his time, his creativity and his investment to support this fundraising initiative is wonderful and we thank him and his wife Diane for progressing everything so quickly.

“The series of books on sale on Amazon and hopefully with local retailers – J & G Innes, St Andrews have confirmed that they will be stocking the books – means that children around the world can enjoy Hamish’s adventures. The fundraising from the ongoing sales will be incredible for the Foundation and help support many new community projects to benefit the town, not to mention publicity for the town itself which is recovering from this year’s pandemic challenges.”

Leave your vote

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.