Roo Adventure Books

In 1990, Harry and his wife Mandy adopted a small brown mongrel called Roo from the Portobello Cat and Dog Rescue Home in Edinburgh.

Little did they know at the time that this “dog of unknown breed and age” was destined to become the heroine of a best-selling series of children's books, with the feisty canine first appearing in The Last Polar Bears, published in 1996.

When Harry sent the manuscript of The Last Polar Bears to Puffin Books, he knew it would stand out against all the other unsolicited submissions if he could catch the eye of a Senior Editor. So, he devised an elaborate parchment parcel knotted with string and covered in hand-drawn postage stamps which would look as if it had been delivered straight from the North Pole, where the book is set. The ruse worked, Roo was set for literary immortality and the publisher hailed Harry as an exceptional talent – someone who could write and illustrate with equal skill.

The moment the book was published it was instantly acclaimed by the critics as charming and original, hilarious as well as poignant.

Watch: The Last Polar Bears told by Martin Clunes (Part 1)

Watch: The Last Polar Bears told by Martin Clunes (Part 2)

“I’ve always had a dog. I could measure my life out in dogs. My relationship with Roo began when Mandy and I got married. We found her in a home for lost dogs and fell in love with her. Essentially my work is a three-way collaboration between me, Mandy and Roo”.

— Harry Horse

After the Last Polar Bears came The Last Gold Diggers, The Last Cowboys and The Last Castaways, all chronicling Roo's travels with Grandpa, told through a collection of the old man's letters to his grandchild back home.

Watch: The Last Cowboys told by Martin Freeman

The Last Polar Bears was also turned into a 30-minute animated TV Christmas Special with Nigel Hawthorne playing Grandfather and Roo as her real-life self.

Watch: The making of “The Last Polar Bears” (Part 1)

Watch: The making of “The Last Polar Bears” (Part 2)

The book is thought to have since sold more than a million copies worldwide.