A BEAR CALLED AH!

A Brand-New Book Launched in Support of The Ayrshire Hospice

Lorraine Johnston

As a wee girl in the 1970s, I used to walk from Hartfield House along Racecourse Road to Ayr Grammar and back again.

I lost my career as a Group Health and Safety Advisor for Halcrow when I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis 18 years ago. Whilst I try not to dwell on that, it is entirely the reason that I started to write. When I became disabled, my physical world became very small indeed. I needed a purpose and to feel less redundant. Writing allows me to experience a wider world, through my stories and the people who enjoy them.

It’s quite the unintended pun, but writing has been a way for me to re-write my story. In fact, ‘writing happier endings’ has become a bit of a mission statement for how I try to live my life.

Coincidently, it helped me to re-frame the previously innocuous letters M and S from meaning Multiple Sclerosis, to meaning My Story, and it was ironic when I discovered that a writer’s manuscript is referred to as their ‘MS’.

I can no longer walk along Racecourse Road, but I do drive there two to three times a week on the way to Rozelle or Belleisle with my loyal wire-haired Dachshund-shaped companion, Jock.

I wanted to write a special book; one that I didn’t think had been done before. More importantly, though, I wanted to write a book that would create funds for charity, not just for the short term, but for many years to come. I wanted to write a story that was timeless and classic. Luckily, once I had that initial idea, I had a great big idea of how to achieve that goal. But it was a huge ask, and one that would require a leap of faith from many people, most of which, I’d never met.

The choice of charity was an obvious one. The Ayrshire Hospice is a wonderful organisation whose facilities and services, delivered to the community during their most difficult and challenging time of need, are outstanding and much valued by those who have been supported by them.

The story idea was about a bear, and I would call that Bear ‘AH’ so it would belong to the Ayrshire Hospice but also have a curious title, hopefully enticing people to read the blurb and find out more. Bears are loved by many, are universally appealing to everyone, and are timeless.

The uniqueness of this book would be that instead of getting one illustrator to illustrate the story, I would ask 12 professional artists to paint one illustration each to represent one page of the story, each featuring a different bear. The other distinctive aspect is that despite the story being written with children in mind, it’s very much appealing to grown-ups too.

I had the idea last November and called Ayrshire Hospice to arrange a meeting, receiving a preliminary ‘yes’ from the charity soon after. I also had a ‘yes’ from three artists which formed the start of Team Bear. Within a week, I had secured 12 artists who were all excited to be joining this collaboration.

Team Bear not only agreed to gift copyright of their paintings for the purpose of the book, but were also kind enough to gift their original paintings too, which will be auctioned to raise even more funds for Ayrshire Hospice. We are thrilled that a special exhibition, A Bear Called AH!, will be held at The Maclaurin Art Gallery in January-February 2027 with all proceeds of sales going to the charity.

The Team Bear artists are Paul Kennedy, Lewis Mackenzie, Jacqueline Orr, Peter Foyle, Ewan McClure, Jan Ferguson, Lynn Howarth, Kath Pender, Yvonne Taylor, Madhumati Manda, Vanessa Lawrence and Margaret Johnston.

Each artist painted their page in their own style and chosen medium. They received their page text and some guidance notes but were encouraged to add their own interpretation and include details meaningful to them and their work. The result is an exquisite book, filled with fine art. It’s a joy to see how they worked independently, without seeing anyone else’s painting until the book was finished. Each page is entirely different and yet the book sits cohesively together, as if Team Bear knew and understood the vision for the result from the very start.

Creating A Bear Called AH! with so many wonderful and talented people has been a heart-warming process and has restored my faith in the principle that most people are still very kind. Everyone gifted their time and their talent to this project to enable the book to make 100% proceeds for Ayrshire Hospice.

Special thanks go to Roddy Martine, author and journalist, for writing the wonderful foreword, and to Richard Longmuir, Creative Director of Launch Digital, for designing the book. Thanks also to my friend Ann Robin, who painted the beautiful ‘shelf of bears’ to end the story off in such a fitting way.

Everyone took a leap of faith in my idea, and I’ve formed a ‘Village of Kindness’ of businesses and people who have championed its cause and continue to spread the word about A Bear Called AH!

Thank you everyone – it wouldn’t have been possible without each and every one of you!