Prime example of murder mystery (From This is Hampshire)

Prime example of murder mystery

10:57am Sunday 17th February 2008

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A KING'S Somborne woman has combined a lifelong passion for animals and science with her hobby of writing fiction.

Penny Morgan, aged 65, had her first novel Prime Witness published toward the end of last year.

She is now awaiting the publication of her second novel and is about halfway through writing her third.

Her first novel was a thriller involving a murder where the only eye witness happened to be a Bonobo ape.

The plot revolves around the interaction between humans and apes as well as involving forensics and other scientific topics.

Her second novel, entitled Blood Wood, is based around illegal logging and the dangers that animals face.

The third thriller called Devil's Dogs, which she has yet to finish, is about illegal dog fighting which continues Penny's theme of animal welfare.

"I'm really interested in animal welfare and animal rights. So many people don't realise what's going on out there," she said.

"I thought by putting these sort of things down into a piece of fiction it would more accessible to people."

Penny has spent a lifetime learning about animals and science with a number of university degrees and a PhD in Comparative Psychology.

She also taught psychology at Peter Symonds' College in Winchester until 1999.

Penny even chose to obtain a law degree so she could incorporate the legal matters into her novels.

"I love writing and, for me, combining all my three interests together is wonderful," she said.

As well as fiction, Penny also writes articles for various animal welfare magazines and hopes to help develop a law centre for animals.

"Although we have some of the best animal welfare laws in Europe it's been difficult to establish a centre that specialises in animal law," she said.

"The idea of this centre is to have lawyers specialising in animal welfare law so these problems have the hope of being sorted."

Penny is thrilled she has had her first novel published.

It means she's been able to contribute in bringing global issues into people's homes.

She hopes people will read her novel and take on board the message that animals deserve respect and understanding, especially in today's world when there are many issues threatening their survival.

Prime Witness is available from Waterstones priced £15.49 as well as many online retailers including www.amazon.com and www.authorhouse.co.uk

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