Amber Fossey - Be Wild, Be Free

HarperCollinsPublishers

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First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2020

FIRST EDITION

Text and illustrations Amber Fossey 2020

Cover layout design by Claire Ward HarperCollinsPublishers 2020

Cover illustrations Amber Fossey

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

Amber Fossey asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

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Source ISBN: 9780008422981

Ebook Edition October 2020 ISBN: 9780008422998

Version 2020-10-10

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• Page numbers taken from the following print edition: ISBN 9780008422981

oh hallo, friend.

do you hear the beasts scratching at the door?

they want to be let out, to be wild and free!

they were sleeping too long, and now theyre getting feisty.

dont be afraid, theyre pretty lovely inside.

and never did i see a more pretty beast than you.

well now, my pretty beast, do you ever wonder how to be wild and free again?

i do. so naturally, i asked a sloth.

but he was busy.

so he sent me off to ask his friends.

leopard did not care, no, not a bit.

he frankly did not give a shit.

bear could not even remember where he put his fucks.

so i sat and looked at rain frog and rain frog looked at me, and we realised, answers dont come easy.

but one cricket shouting is louder than a hundred people sleeping,

if you listen.

dear heart, we must creep deeper into the kingdom of claws, and listen for the secrets of the beasts.

come! we are all in this together.

you are not a lone wolf.

a good place to start is to follow your toes. it doesnt matter if you have two, or three.

(or ten, if youre a very silly creature.)

but if your nose says no to your toes and wants to hide from whats outside, well its just fine to take it slow.

when it gets cloudy red panda hides under her octopus hat.

it shelters her from rainy thoughts and tickles her into small smiles.

of all the places you can go, your imagination is as great as any.

reality is just

one way of looking at things.

see this ant? he is thinking incredible things and dreaming of flying if he could grow wings.

well, ive seen an ant fly, it got on a plane. so i think youll get high if you try just the same.

but beware, beloved! thinking too much is bad for your thoughts.

most days beetle packed her bags and went on a nice little guilt trip, to see what she had fucked up the day before.

whisper in my ear the things that keep you up at night.

together we can stumble from the darkness to the light.

you see, this special world can be a tricky sausage.

every sausage has two ends, happy and sad.

a perfect life smells of bullshit.