Lillian Jackson Braun

by Sir Wally

The lady of history we have selected is a mystery writer who has become a household name and whose work celebrate cats. Her name is Lillian Jackson Braun and she has written countless "Cat Who" mysteries, books with no bad words, light humor and a touch of adventure. She was born in 1916 and now lives with her two Siamese cats in North Carolina. She stated in an interview that it was never her intention to write about cats or even to write mysteries. Her first writings were sad and her own mum encouraged her to write something with happy endings. She could not think of anything but then she began to realize how funny cats can be at times. Her first pet was a kitten which she named KoKo and when it was tragically killed, she wrote a story that first appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Soon a publisher asked for a mystery involving cats and the "Cat Who" series was born. The hero cat of her books is called KoKo and all her books are a memorial to that first little kitten. Ms Braun says she has had many cats throughout her writing career and seems to love being owned by felines. We love her books and own all of them. Her cats in the books do not do supernatural things but convey their clues by simply sniffing or scratching in a certain place or emitting "yeows" and "rawrs". One can never be quite certain if they are really assisting in the mystery or simply being a cat.