"THE FARMER'S WORD MADE FLESH `THATS HIM"
MURRAY BALL WITH THE WORLD RENOWNED BORDER COLLIE DOG ` FINN'
Murray Ball is 6 foot tall, morose, sarcastic, pig-headed,, has a false tooth (what rugby player doesn't)
and walks with a limp
Murray Ball was born in
Manawatu New Zealand. He was educated in New Zealand, Australia, and South
Africa.
An ex-junior `All Black' (rugby), NZ Triallist,
Journalist, menswear salesman, dogem car attendant, freezing worker,
amateur farmhand, coin machine operator,
school teacher before he was an author, his first book `The People Makers)
was written during his time as a teacher
and featured many characters that later evolved into Footrot Flats people.
During the five years he spent in Britain
he drew freelance cartoons, illustrated children's comics, and drew a regular
cartoon feature for `Punch' featuring `
Stanley'. On his return to the land of his birth in 1974 he was determined
to create
an indigenous cartoon, and Footrot Flats was the
result, now of course `Dog and Wal' have won the hearts and minds
of the international community, and they have
fans in every country were dogs, and sheepdogs in particular are valued.
`Elswhere' has sent these cartoons to, the USA,
Germany, Austria, Britain, France, Africa, Greece, Canada, Sweden
to name a few. Murray likes Bouzouki music,
spaghetti, warm milk, his wife cooking bread in the kitchen, rain, flax
golf, spiders, baked beans, his horse and his
house cow, he collects Maori carving, Max Boyce's poetry, he loves Pam
(his wife) the kids and he truly loved his very
good friend `Finn' who was the inspiration for the always nameless `Dog'.
EULOGY FAREWELL TO THE DOG (FROM
THE NZ SHEEP ASSOCIATION'S MAGAZINE)
Sad to relate that in 2000 Murray
lost `Finn' at the fine old age of sixteen and a half. Mr Ball said :-
I gave `the dog' Finn's courage and
his discretion, his innocence, his honesty, his sneakiness, his loyalty,
and his weakness, above all I gave him love,
`THE DOG LOVED'.
Like Lord Byron* before him, Murray Ball gave the dog a very special
place amongst us, and with the death of
`Finn' he no longer sketches the light hearted
adventures of the Footrot Flats mob, so the rest of the world is a sadder,
and less happy place, and we can only
join him in mourning the end of a wonderful era, and the passing
of a dear companion.
AN
INTERVIEW WITH AN AUTHOR FROM HARPER
COLLINS HOME PAGE
Murray Ball, creator of the ever-popular Footrot Flats writes to his fans
to explain why he brought
the series to a close.
To Footrot Flats Readers,
The time has come to end Footrot Flats.
No dog lives forever and eventually you have to say 'Thank you mate. You
have done all a man could ask
of you' and let him rest.
The dog has carried my family since the kids were at primary school. They
are now adults and
living their own lives.
If the dog were real his muzzle would be grey and his eyes dimmer, gentler
and more tolerant than they were
in his youth. It is time to leave him warming his stomach in the sun, twitching
and jerking as he defeats
the Murphy dogs, Major or the mighty Horse, time and time again in his dreams.
I will miss him very much. He has been my ghostly companion for twenty years.
He has become part of the
farm. His spirit is everywhere.
To the readers who have shared his failures and occasional successes with
such loyalty and affection, thank you.
And the dog?
If you want to see him again he's the dog tied to the fence with a piece
of baling twine or the heading 'dog' floating
weightless above a farm gate or the black dot gliding over the hills like
an ant across a billiard table.
The farmer's words made flesh — that's him.
Goodbye dog. See ya around.
Murray Ball
