' In early 1998 I went to Perth in Western Australia in order to attend the literature festival & part of the arrangement was that I should go to Karratha to do their first ever literary dinner Karratha is a mining town a long way further north The landscape is extraordinary being composed of vast heaps of dark red earth & rock poking out of the never-ending bush I imagine that Mars must have a similar feel to it I went exploring & discovered the bronze statue to Red Dog outside the town of Dampier I felt straight away that I had to find out more about this splendid dog A few months later I returned to Western Australia & spent two glorious weeks driving around collecting Red Dog stories & visiting the places that he knew writing up the text as I went along I hope my cat never finds out that I have written a story to celebrate the life of a dog' Louis de Bernieres