Hachette Children’s Group will publish a fiction title this autumn from the nation’s favourite Supervet and No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author Professor Noel Fitzpatrick. This is the first children’s publishing from Noel, who has sold over 390,000 for his publishing with Orion imprint Trapeze.
Vetman and his Bionic Animal Clan, a middle-grade adventure, will publish in hardback 28th October 2021, and in paperback Autumn 2022.
Vetman is a brilliant animal adventure that follows characters Vetman, Imogen, Findlay and a whole cast of bionic animals as they save animal companions everywhere from the evil plans of Vetman’s old foe, The-Man-With-No-Name. Vetman is a superhero Noel first imagined as a child, with hints of the amazing life-enhancing stories from his Channel 4 show The Supervet. Vetman is bought to life with black-and-white illustrations throughout.
When I was a child, I dreamt up Vetman as a hero that would save all of the broken, discarded and disregarded animals of the world and would make them well again using magical inventions made out of all of the other material things people throw away. Through all of my life, he has been my guiding light and for me it was very important that he came into the world right now – to remind us of our moral responsibility to look after animals, the one planet we share with them, and the one unconditional love regardless of species, colour or where we come from that truly unites us. Sharing this story of love, hope, faith, and redemption against the odds is what I have been building toward all of my career – as a veterinary specialist, as a person and as a creative.
My hope is that Vetman and his Bionic Animal Clan can inspire children to reach for the stars in their own lives and to realise the meaningful impact they can have on the world, motivated by love and kindness towards both animal and man.
Kate Agar, Editorial Director for Fiction at Hachette Children’s Group said,
When Noel came to us with the idea for Vetman, his passion for storytelling was incredible to see. Not only has he created a brilliant middle-grade adventure, we know that he’s going to inspire a new generation of animal-lovers to do everything they can to take care of the animals in their lives and animals in the world generally through his writing.