Publishers didn't like my first book title suggestion which is still a shame - Julian Norton

It was lovely to write and (unless I have a change of heart) will be the last one.

What makes it special is the image on the front cover. Over the course of the last nine and a half years, I’ve written eleven books. One of the hardest parts is always working out the title.

For my first book, which ended up Horses, Heifers and Hairy Pigs: The Life of a Yorkshire Vet, it took a while for everyone to agree.

My publishers didn’t like one of my early suggestions of Fifty Shades of Brown, which I still think was a shame. The next challenge is finding a suitable image for the front cover.

Despite my perennial protestations, publishers have insisted on a picture of a grinning me, slap bang in the centre.

If I am clutching an animal and surrounded by a happy collection of sheep, cattle, pigs, alpacas and anything else furry, so much the better.

If there is a sunny Yorkshire scene as a backdrop, then the image is complete!

Photo-shop is then employed to remove an unwanted grey cloud, or improve the colour of my jumper, all at the discretion/mercy of the artistic panel at the publishing house.

Scheduling someone with the right type of camera and skills, finding a venue, all of which needs to be coordinated around my veterinary work and the weather forecast adds another level of challenge.

For my first front cover shots, I had only just returned from a springtime ski touring race in the sunny alps, and I had a badly sunburnt face.

It was so red, even the Yorkshire farm animals viewed me with extra suspicion.

My ruddy hues didn’t stand out too badly on the photos, but the editors were rather heavy handed on my teeth, the shade of whiteness making me look as if my trip had been to Turkey rather than the Alps!

The two children’s books offered some relief from the drama of cover-photos, as they had wonderfully bucolic illustrations of a sheep and foal respectively, but books nine and ten reverted back to the same old grinning me surrounded by animals.

“Have you had any thoughts on the cover image?” said an email from my latest editor, which filled me with more dread. Then, I had a flash of inspiration.

Not long ago, Lucy Pittaway kindly painted a portrait of my lovely Jack Russell Emmy.

As Emmy is aging, Anne and I thought we’d like a portrait to recollect her in her youth. Lucy portrayed her at the top of Sutton bank, overlooking Gormire with Hood hill in the background, which is one of our favourite places and views.

Everyone agreed that this was a perfect alternative to a photo of just me. But there was just one hiccup.

The painting featured in a recent episode of The Yorkshire Vet and we didn’t want to detract from the “big reveal” of the image. So, the front cover of my last book had to be kept under wraps until the last minute.

The original painting hangs, fittingly, in the waiting room of our practice in Thirsk.

Amusingly, in Lucy’s galleries around the North, Emmy-themed merchandise is available, including mugs, tea-towels, notebooks, cushions and prints.

But, if you look closely at the painting, behind Emmy’s happy face and gleeful eyes, and past the purple heather in the foreground, there is a little bloke, pedalling on a mountain bike, with a huge grin on his face.