May 11, 1918

Sheila Every (May 11, 1918 to April 20, 1984)  was Scottish. Her books rely less on her experiences with her own children and more on her pet bull-terrier, named Bill, and, after the family moved to Ontario, on a kitten they named Simon. Her husband, David Burnford, whom she married in 1941, then brought home a labrador retriever, and the scene was set for a fictional account of three pets who must find their own way in a Canadian wilderness. Her story, widely recognised to rely on her anthropomorphic imagination, made her famous. The Incredible Journey (1961) was not written until after her first dog, Bill, died.


Anita Silvey, in Children's Books and Their Creators (1995) mentions that during the war years in England, Sheila Burnford actually read aloud to Bill. It is becoming more and more common for people to be confused about the capacities of pets and other animals. I speak not of Burnford here, for I am not sure about her. But the common situation around us, with people who do not rigorously try to understand the differences between other animals and ourselves. My point is this ignorance can put their pets in greater danger. And of course, without a firm grasp on behavioral and other genetic capacities, we cannot give the miraculous events in "the animal world" which might occur, their proper intellectual setting.