Call of the Sea

2002 (ISBN 0-7278-5938-2  - Severn House - £18.99)

When Ellie loses her husband at sea she is determined to protect her son Dannie from the same fate.  Homesick for the Highlands of Scotland, she leaves her husband's fishing village to raise his son among the mountains, lochs and animals of the Highlands.  Dannie is devoted to the animals at the refuge where they live, in  particular a young stag.  But he also develops a secret fascination with the sea and comes to feel constrained by his present life.

This book is available through Amazon and other main book stores.

Cry to the Moon

2001 (ISBN 0-7278-5784-3 - Severn House - £17.99)

Though life on the Mickelmoor Estate in the Scottish Highlands is always tough, it is now under threat.  The estate is not paying and is up for sale with the jobs of Alastair McNeill and his assistant keeper Ian Benton at risk.  Their lives are made even more difficult by the arrival of a wild cat.  
The wild cat must contend with the weather and her natural enemies as well as the animosity of Alastair and Ian, but she finds a friend in Alastair's twenty year old daughter Sheina who watches secretly over her and christens her Hexa. 
Rob Vincent, who inherits the next door farm and turns it into a wildlife sanctuary - which does not endear him to the two keepers - works with Sheina to protect Hexa.  When they rescue one of her injured kittens and attempt to tame it, the kitten and their friendship must be kept a closely guarded secret.

This book is available through Amazon and other main book stores.

A Cherished Freedom

2000 (ISBN 07278 5682 0 - Severn House - £17.99)

When Louise Pritchard's husband Mervyn disappears without trace, she is left to run their remote Welsh farm single-handedly.  Grief-stricken, lonely, and several months pregnant, she turns to local vet Russell Trent for help and support.  To keep Louise company, Russell's teenage daughter, Kate, and mother-in-law, Emma, move in to Bryn Mawr Farm and together they struggle to rebuild it.

This book is available through Amazon and other main book stores.

Perilous Journey

1998 (ISBN 0-285-63424  - Souvenir Press - £16.99)

This is about a woman, Liese; widowed after a car crash, turning her life upside down. At the time of the crash there are few she can turn to as she finds out that her husband was not the man she thought he was. With no money, only debt, she takes a job at a kennels. There she meets a German Shepherd, Shadow, who having been taken away from the one person he loved was now uncontrollable. A growing bond develops between the woman and dog. Shadow learns trust, and Liese, in turn, begins to feel a renewed sense of self worth. However, the legacy of her husband's actions continues to haunt her and seems to spread bad luck over the kennels and her new found friends. A sequence of accidents and misfortunes start to threaten their lives.

The Running Foxes  

1997 (ISBN 0 285 63393 7 - Souvenir Press £6.99)

It is a magic novel of an England now almost gone - of foxes running free over the Cumbrian fells; of an otter cub adopted by a poacher; of dour Lakeland farmers who hunt on foot, each with their eager hounds, and are outwitted again and again by a vixen and her two cubs.

The Guardians of Staghill

1997 (ISBN 0 265 63361 9 - Souvenir Press £16.00)

Torran loved Staghill, so different from the brilliant tropical country where she had grown up. She and her step-grandfather had lived in the cottage on the hill for eighteen months. The past was beginning, very slowly to recede. The healing woods and the wild animals that she met reached out to her. Here she felt safe. Lyan too found peace in the woods where he came at night to film the animals when sleep eluded him. He was the only man Torran trusted since the day when her whole life had been torn apart. Slowly their friendship was deepening as they shared their love of the hill and its night-time inhabitants. But an unseen, unknown danger lurks on the slopes of the hill. Who is intent on harming Torran and her step-grandfather? Who is killing the deer and turning this sanctuary into a place of terror and pain? As tension mounts and the threats intensify, Torran, Lyan and the entire village are drawn into a maelstrom of fear and mistrust that seems likely to engulf humans and animals alike.

A Cry on the Wind

1995 (ISBN 0 285 63257 4 - Souvenir Press £15.99)

The craggy peak of the Grey Man dominated the small Welsh valley where Docherty's farm nestled among small fields. Its presence haunted Bryony, newly bereaved and finding it hard to settle in as Docherty's housekeeper. The farmer was ill at ease with women and had little to say to her, and she missed her old life on her mother's farm in Cheshire. The mountain reawakened her memories of the avalanche that had killed her fiance eight years before. Two strands weave their way through this magical novel set in the mountains of Snowdonia. As Bryony tries to come to terms with her new life, so, from the other side of the mountain, Precious Hope, an abandoned German Shepherd bitch, finds her way to shelter in a cave high on the slopes of the Grey Man. Both lonely, both in their different ways fighting to survive in a strange new world, girl and dog will have to brave the mountain at its most wrathful before they can win through to happiness.

Thursday's Child

1995 (ISBN 0 285 631799 - Souvenir Press -  £14.99)

Roi was the dog of Brier's dreams. He would enable her to fulfil her wish to become a police dog handler, the first woman in the Lee Valley Dog Section. A young widow with two small children, life had been hard for Brier since her husband was killed two years before. Now, suddenly, she was full of hope again. Before she found Roi, Brier had been four weeks into the dog handling course, without a dog. It was young Simon who gave them the idea - that night he had tried to run away from home and had taken refuge in a nearby field where Roi found him. When Brier went home she took with her not only Roi, but Simon too. How could she let this endearing child go back to his drunken father? What Brier did not now was that Simon was already Roi's friend, and that by taking him into her family she was going to complicate the business of training Roi beyond all her imaginings. As we follow Brier through her intensive 13-week training with Roi, we discover how much dedication is demanded of the men and women who work as police dog handlers, and the enormous stresses that are placed on them when their emotions are torn between their work and the people they love at home.

The Hills are Lonely  

1997 (ISBN  0 285 631160 - Souvenir Press)

A man grieving for his dead wife, a young girl torn by the pains of adolescence, and an injured wildcat whose plight is the catalyst that brings them to a new understanding - these are the elements in a haunting story set in the remote Scottish Highlands. When Gavin and his 13 year old daughter Kate come to live in the old cottage in the hills, their hope is to start a new life far from the memories of the wife and mother whose death has left an emptiness in their hearts. But even here they seem unable to share their grief. Gavin spends his days high in the hills, filming a nesting golden eagle; Kate wanders alone, lost in her secret fantasy word - until she finds the wildcat and becomes absorbed in his struggle for survival.

Alone in the Hills  

1997 (ISBN 0 9513357 8 2)

Nona's widowed mother has remarried. Nona, who is sixteen, is town bred and hates her new home on a welsh mountain farm. Her stepfather breaks his arm and has to go to hospital, leaving Nona briefly in charge. A blizzard prevents her parents from returning. Nona is left to cope with a six week old baby, and a multitude of animals in need of feeding, milking and attention. During the ensuing two days she learns a great deal about herself and about adult responsibilities.
This novella was originally serialised in four parts in "My Weekly" in 1996

Non Fiction books:

How to have a Sensible Dog

£6.95

This book tells you all you need to know to turn a clumsy, frightened, disobedient, young pup into a dog that will obey, protect and love you for life!
It covers topics such as how to teach your puppy to be obedient, the best way to house train a pup, how to decide which breed to buy, equipment needed, establishing yourself as boss and to identify and cure common ailments.

Stranger Than Fiction

1994
Elspeth Bryce Smith is well known in horse circles in Anglesey, North Wales. As a child, before World War 1, she had polio so badly she was paralysed. She was put on horseback and strapped on, as a way of seeing the world. Gradually her muscles gained strength. She was the daughter of a very wealthy family but became horse crazy, and ended up riding as a jockey in races. Women did not ride in races in those days so she adopted the name of John Grey and people thought she was a man. She was very successful but had some amazing experiences and some very odd ones. This is her story.

Double or Quit

1987
This is the sixth of the books on Joyce's own dogs. Joyce's GSD, Chita, is nine years old, and it is time to retire from Working Trials. A young dog would be good. Along comes Josse... six owners, (aged 2?)... but needing a home. Joyce has had three dogs with major problems. There can't be a fourth, can there? There can. This was the dog to beat them all. This book is the story of his training might well help others who have taken on a rescued dog and found they have to overcome major difficulties..

Dog Days

1986
Joyce says "Every day is a dog day. Every day we wake and are greeted by our companion dogs. How can any of us explain how we feel, at that first moment, in the early morning, when the animal we have chosen to share our lives is waiting for the pleasure of our presence." This is a book full of dogs; of dog stories, about the dog classes Joyce runs, and how to choose and train a dog for Working Trials. Chita was far from the ideal dog for that, but she managed to excel in some exercises, and she enjoyed every moment of her training.

A Dog in a Million

1984
That is how Chita was described by one of the top professionals in the country. It was not intended as a compliment. Few people have ever met a dog so stubborn, so determined, so contrary. Chita loved only herself at first. It took those who knew her as a pup to appreciate the dog she became in her later years. There is always hope.

Two for Joy

1982
Sadly, dogs have only short lives and Puma went when she was nine. Janus is now eleven, but still a comedian. Chita is now playful, happy and enjoys life to the full. In this book Joyce shares some of the very funny happenings that occurred during the two years it took Chita to grow up.

Three's a Pack

1980
Joyce decided to add yet another canine to her family. The ideal puppy... to turn into the ideal dog. The Fates were laughing. Chita was to prove a walking nightmare for several years, but training turned her, in the end, into a dog that was a great companion, that visited schools and nursing homes, and became the 1000th Pets As Therapy dog for Pro-Dogs. It was a long road, fraught with many problems, but Chita proved the greatest teacher of them all. An easy dog teaches nothing.
One reviewer wrote: "It's the detail, the love, the patience and the understanding that shine through Joyce Stranger's writing which transforms this ordinary scene into a fascinating and touching saga."

Two's Company

1977
Joyce told her school teachers she wanted to write and wanted to breed dogs. They laughed. Writing books was precarious. Breeding dogs was absurd. She has done both. If only those teachers knew! Her introduction to keeping pedigree dogs was not what she expected; but through Janus, a Golden Retriever, and Puma, a German Shepherd, she started on a way of life that was to lead into most unexpected channels. This is their story, and the beginning of a long journey along a totally different path.

Kym

1976
Kym was the family's Siamese cat. Outsize for his breed, convinced he was a dog in disguise, he led Joyce into more peculiar situations than any animal she has every owned; and she has owned many. Read how he "helped" her knit... and what happened when, still a kitten, he met a tortoise, a creature that smelled like an animal but had neither head nor legs! And did any other cat deal with people reading a newspaper in the way that Kym did? This is his story... It will produce more laughter than tears. Kym was memorable in every way.