The Poppy Project
Author Fiona Ingram
Available from Amazon Kindle – Barnes & noble – Kobobooks –
Poppy is Fiji’s most famous dog and her amazing journey has helped to highlight the desperate plight of animals in Fiji. Poppy arrived at the Animals Fiji Clinic with a brutal facial injury in March 2012. It appeared she had been struck by a cane knife, amputating 50% of her muzzle. With a dreadful open wound, she had been left to fend for herself, and by the time she reached the Animals Fiji Clinic she weighed half of her normal body weight. Had a Good Samaritan not found Poppy and handed her in, she would have died of starvation or as a result of her wounds. Due to lack of funding, the Animals Fiji Clinic did not have a vet on staff. However, thanks to a fantastically successful fundraising appeal, Poppy was airlifted to Australia in October 2012 for reconstructive surgery. Her journey was documented by the Australian television show, Bondi Vet.
Poppy’s story is one in a million. Sadly, so many of the animals she left behind in Fiji suffer and die every day without treatment for illness and injury. Poppy’s book, The Poppy Project, is intended to raise awareness worldwide for the plight of animals in Fiji.
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Fiona Ingram Biography-
My earliest story-telling talents came to the fore when, from the age of ten, I entertained my three younger brothers and their friends with serialised tales of children undertaking dangerous and exciting exploits, which they survived through courage and ingenuity. The never-ending story was called “Gruesome Gables”, and it certainly was gruesome! Haunted houses, vampires, and skeletons leaping out of coffins were hot favourites in the cast of characters. Although I don’t have children of my own, I have an adopted foster child, from an underprivileged background, who has grown up with a love for books.
Naturally, I am a voracious reader and have been from early childhood. I can remember sitting on the bus going home from school, reading, and then missing my stop because I was so caught up in the book. I also went to boarding school at Durban Girls’ College and the boarders’ section was separate from the school. I used to walk down to College House with one foot in the gutter of the path, so that I could continue reading and not walk into a tree or something. I love all kinds of books, art, theatre, antiques, animals (5 cats, 2 dogs and a ferocious duck called Charlemagne), music, and films. Travel is another passion and I have been fortunate to have lived in Europe (while studying) and America (for work). I have travelled widely and fulfilled many of my travel goals.
Being a bookworm, I had to attend university. After winning the Emma Smith Scholarship to finance my university studies, I graduated from the University of Natal, Durban with a double first in my B.A. (French & Drama). I won a Human Sciences Research Council Bursary, which enabled me to do my Honours in Drama at Natal. I then went to the University of the Witwatersrand to do my Masters in French-African literature (the impact of colonial language and culture upon the development of African theatre and literature). I desperately wanted to go into the world of theatre so I applied for and won the Emma Smith Overseas Scholarship for further study. I studied drama at The Drama Studio in London and mime at L’Ecole Jacques le Coq in Paris. When I returned to South Africa, I wanted to give something back to the community – after all, I’d been privileged enough to win a fantastic scholarship that changed my life. I immersed myself in teaching drama at community centres, and became involved in producing community and grassroots theatre with local playwrights and performers in Natal for several years. A move to Johannesburg took me in a new direction … journalism. From there, it was probably inevitable that one day I would think about writing a book!