Monty the Book is now on sale.

To avoid confusion and unnecessary delays, please read the 10 things you need to know about Monty the Book and how to order. Thank you.

1. Price

We've tried to keep the price down to the bare minimum so that the book becomes affordable to as many people as possible. Monty the Book is £15, that's around US $20.

In order to do this we designed the book ourselves, saving around £2,000 in graphical design fees; we can then pass on these savings to you.

Self-designed and self-published

Please note: order online only. Due to Covid and other complications we do not have the capacity to sell any other way (cheque, in person, etc) for now.

All funds from this book will go directly towards running DOP.

2. Will you ship International?

Yes. Like all of our DOP shop items, we ship worldwide.

3. How long before I get my book?

There will clearly be a spike in demand in the first few days so we need to be patient. Please know there is only one person doing all the shop sales and she will be working flat out, 100% on the shop between now and Christmas.

Plan for around a week between ordering and having the book in you hand for UK customers. Obviously for international orders it will be longer. Generally, the further away you are the longer it takes.

Having said all that - we hope to have the first 200–300 orders (UK) in your hands by this weekend.

4. Will there be an ebook?

Yes. However, we're having a few issues with file formatting at the moment. As soon as we iron these problems out, we'll have an ebook version available online.

5. When is the shop open?

The shop is open continually but will shut over the Christmas period: 19th December - 2nd January.

To be guaranteed delivery before Christmas, obviously order well before 19th December.

6. Will my book be signed by the author?

There will be two versions of the physical book available - one signed and one not. Both will have their own shop category and be clearly described to avoid confusion.

7. What kind of book is it?

It's a tribute to Monty - the most famous and well-loved osprey in the world.

There are 120 pages including an introduction, table of contents and 50 short stories with the most amazing images of our boy. Many have never been seen publicly before and, unlike Facebook and other social media platforms, are presented in full, uncompressed quality. Monty the Book has a soft back but we've spent a little extra on some Spot UV varnish on the cover - it looks superb.

8. I suffer from FOMO - please HELP me...!

The Fear of Missing Out gets to us all - especially at Christmas. However, fear not.

We've printed plenty of the book to go around - they will not run out. If you have a fear of missing the Christmas Day deadline, however, make sure you order as soon as you can.

9. Is the 2021 calendar still available with Idris on the cover?

Yes, we have around 150 left. Order the calendar and the book together to save on postage.

10. Talking of postage - how much it is?

Same as always.... £3 flat rate to UK customers (irrespective of how many items you purchase in one order. For international orders the shipping is based on the weight of the order, including packaging, to your country.

And Finally...

The original idea for a Monty tribute was to produce a calendar. However, as the season went on people kept telling us they wanted a more permanent tribute to an amazing osprey.

I started work on Monty the Book during the second week in September and the first few hundred customers will have it in their homes by late November. I feel particularly proud to have produced Monty the Book in just 2½ months - from writing the first few words to having it in your hands.

We are not Amazon and our economy of scale is non-existent. I'm delighted to have met a November timescale.

Please be realistic and patient with us regarding delivery; Janine is working out of her spare bedroom with thousands of shop items strewn all over the house for company.

Finally, I would like to thank Fay Franklin. She is a professional book editor and proofreader with decades of experience and has donated her services on Monty the Book on a voluntary basis. Fay has been beyond patient with me; she's let a few things (mainly 'Welshisms') 'go' for the sake of meeting deadlines. I also kept changing things too, which doesn't help!

You may fine the odd grammatical peccadillo - please blame me, not Fay. It is, after all, my second language :-)

Thank you for your patience waiting for Monty the Book.