Alveridgea and the Legend of the Lonely Dog

by Ivan Clarke and Stu Duval

Atlantic Books - RRP $39.99 - Hardcover

About Lonely Dog...

A few years ago, New Zealander Ivan Clarke went on holiday. As he departed, he looked back at his dog, looking wistfully after him. ‘That dog is lonely,’ he said. Upon his return, he sketched, and then painted a picture like none he had ever done before. Instead of a realistic landscape, brimming with light, Ivan painted a lively, whimsical image of a dog, standing fully clothed, looking longingly after a departing ferry, and lit by an over-bright moon. He called it ‘Bon Voyage’.

The ‘Lonely Dog’ developed from a single picture to a collection to sculpture to a gallery (in Auckland’s Britomart). A sumptuously designed, handcrafted book was produced in special limited edition of just 95 copies and sold for NZ$30,000. Now, at last, the rest of the world can enjoy the story of the ‘Lonely Dog’ in this attractive new hardback edition.

This a story of music and passion, love and loss, defeat and victory. But his birth was not legendary. Abandoned on the cold steps of a Houndside orphanage, this small unhoundish pup grew up knowing nothing of his mother and father and everything about loneliness and sorrow. His was a hard-scrabble life on the working-class side of town, where motorbike gangs mingled with milkmen and everything was faded, including dreams.

Yet it was here that Lonely first heard the blues, gritty barbed-wire blues, leaking from clubs and honkytonk bars. And it was this music that became his lifeline and his destiny. Yet it came at a price. Bullied and misunderstood, Lonely was hounded from town and became a refugee in his own refugee in his own country. Rejected, hunted, he knew both prison bars and freedom’s kiss. Some called him a troubadour, others a troublemaker.

With a price on his head, all this shy reluctant hero cared about was the guitar on his back and his one true love. It is said Lonely Dog’s songs became legends long before he did, but he caught up and the whole world listened. This is his story.

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Ivan Clarke is a landscape painter and fine artist living in New Zealand. Alveridgea: The Legend of the Alveridgea: The Legend of the Lonely Dog was accidentally inspired by Ivan's pet dachshund Arthur Snout. Ivan and Stu are currently working on a film script of the book. 
Visit the website for the Lonely Dog here .