Noel Fitzpatrick on his inspiring new superhero book Vetman

Virgin Radio

15 Nov 2021, 13:06

Everyone's favourite vet and author joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about writing the literary offering that has changed his life.

He told Chris about the superhero character: “He was in my head since I was 10. There's more than a passing resemblance on the front of the book. He's been the guardian angel of all the animals and of me when I was having a tough time and I dreamt up a superhero that would protect me and save all the animals and he became Vetman.  You don't get to do Vetman until you do all the other stuff first."

He continued: “It's actually the most important thing I've ever done by mile. I was thinking about the child that wants to be great and there's a little line in the book that you are whoever you want to become. And I think about the child who wants to be a concert pianist or the child wants to be an Olympian. I didn't want to be patronising to kids. I wanted to deal with real emotions; grief, pain, love, loss, the whole nine yards and being the greatest you can be.

"Secondly, I wanted them to find refuge for the fears and the stuff that is difficult for people. And thirdly, I wanted to bring them hope, it needs to be entertaining and needs to be a joyous ride of yes, we can save the world. There's so much doom and gloom. Feeling five to 10 years old every Friday and Saturday night was a beautiful catharsism for me. It's changed my life because it's made me re-evaluate why I do what I do. 

“There's something inside us, everyone, and I mean, everyone that is incredibly unique and special and the moments we touch it, the moments when we feel really alive are the moments that we feel that energy... what Louis Theroux referred to as total freedom when everything is possible, nothing is impossible and we don't complicate it. 

“I just wish and hope that there's somebody somewhere, some 10-year-old or a 10-year-old inside an 80-year-old somewhere that picks it up… a lady came into my practice the other day and she was reading it and she's 82 and she said she was nearly in tears and said, Well, I feel eight, and that is a thing what society does. It tries to homogenise us, politics tries to homogenise us, the things that we demand on Instagram and Twitter and everything else homogenise us, being really you is when you're seven and that's what I love about Vetman. He's really himself and he's the greatest I could ever become.”

Vetman is out now.

For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.