Kate MacDougall
Author Interview - Kate MacDougall
Author of London’s Number-One Dog Walking Agency
At some point during the summer of 2006, I decided to quit my dull but safe job at London’s leading auctioneers, Sotheby’s, to set up a dog walking company. It was an unusual decision for a number of reasons, the primary ones being that I knew very little about dogs, nothing at all about business, and ‘dog walking’ wasn’t even considered to be a real job. I was in my late twenties, on the cusp of adulthood, but rather than settling into conventional job progression, I decided to embark upon an entirely new and very much improvised career walking some of London’s many pampered pooches. The book, a coming-of-age memoir, follows the next few years as the business grows, we meet a host of canine characters, their owners and walkers, while also intertwining with my own journey from haphazard twenty-something into settled adulthood via marriage, mother-daughter embroilment, home ownership and starting my own family - a step which leads me to handing the business over and moving out of London with our two children.
Author Interview - Kate MacDougall
Author I draw inspiration from: So many! Top ones are Nora Ephron, David Sedaris, Jilly Cooper, Nina Stibbe, Jane Austen and Shakespeare. I have recently discovered Katherine Heiny, who I love, and always return to Nancy Mitford and P G Wodehouse.
Author Interview - Kate MacDougall
Favorite place to read a book: In bed, on a train, by a pool or anywhere with my dogs.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: James Bond from the Ian Fleming novels. I am pretty sure he has managed to escape an elevator or two in his time, and if he wasn't able to get us out, I think he would be excellent company!
Author Interview - Kate MacDougall
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: I think I have always known, although it took a while to really sink in and to gain the confidence to really commit time to writing. I wrote endless diaries as a child and I remember so clearly how I would write each sentence so carefully and consciously as if someone was going to be reading it. At school I wrote little plays for my friends and then, as an adult, I experimented on and off with writing a very bad novel about an art thief. Our flat in London was broken into and my laptop was stolen which in many ways was a good thing as the book was completely dreadful, but it also made me realise how much enjoyed writing. As soon as I started the dog walking company I knew it would make an amazing book - there were just so many fascinating characters.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: Old paperback, second hand, from a little thrift shop. I love the smell of old books and imagining who their previous owners might have been.
The last book I read: Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
Author Interview - Kate MacDougall
Pen & paper or computer: Both! I make endless notes on paper, but all my writing is done on my laptop. I wrote my first book on an iPad which gave me a very sore neck!
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: Rachel Samstat from Heartburn by Nora Ephron - lots of gossip and great cooking!
Author Interview - Kate MacDougall
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: A scientist. I would be a terrible scientist as I was awful at science at school but after the last year, scientists have become my heroes. They are the new rock stars.
Favorite decade in fashion history: 1980s! Big hair, big shoulders, taffeta, lace and lots of blue eyeshadow!
Place I’d most like to travel: Japan
My signature drink: Red wine
Favorite artist: David Hockney
Number one on my bucket list: Whale watching
Anything else you'd like to add: Thank you!!
Find more from the author:
Instagram: katemacdougall1
Author Bio: Kate MacDougall is a freelance journalist who specialises in the countryside, lifestyle, interiors and all things dogs. She has written for The Telegraph, Country Life, Horse and Hound, Homes and Antiques and Period Living amongst others.
She grew up in Shropshire, has lived in London, Edinburgh and New York, but now lives in Oxfordshire with her husband, three children and two very naughty dogs.
