How I wrote Rigatoni the Pasta Cat – Michael Rosen

April 7th 2022

I wrote Rigatoni the Pasta Cat in my head.

Really? Is that possible?

Yes, I was lying in bed in what is called a 'Rehabilitation Hospital'. I couldn't walk at the time - well actually I couldn't even stand up! So I was spending a lot of time, just lying in bed. The other thing that was happening to me was that I was dreaming about all the food that I couldn't have! You see, if you're in hospital in usual times, your friends and relatives bring you in all the lovely food you love the most. But this was at the time of lockdown and so no one could come and see me. Oh no! What this meant was that I couldn't get to have my special favourite foods like......raisins....and hummus....You see I have to have raisins and hummus every day. I don't have them at the same time, but I have to have them all the same.

So picture me, lying on my back, wondering what to do AND dreaming about the food that I couldn't have.....hummus...mmm....raisins....And then I got to thinking about a pet that might want the food it wanted to have but couldn't have it....what about....a cat! What might a cat want? And I just came up with the idea of Rigatoni - that sounds a bit like 'Tony' but with a bit added on the front. And then I though Rigatoni would love....pasta! (I love pasta too but I didn't get to miss pasta in hospital because they brought us plenty of that.) 

So now I had my character – Rigatoni the Pasta Cat. I had what was missing from his life - stories either need something missing or something a dangerous. It's called 'jeopardy'. Now all I had to do was make it into a story. So I invented the idea of Rigatoni being very well looked after by two people but they're two people who have to go away and forget to tell the boy who comes in to look after Rigatoni, that he should give him pasta. Oh no! No pasta! Jeopardy! 

So then, there I was lying on my back thinking up all the ways in which Rigatoni can get pasta...

I made it up in my head.

Then, when I came home from hospital, I went over to my computer and wrote it all down. 

And that's the story of how I wrote 'Rigatoni the Pasta Cat'...

Rigatoni the Pasta Cat is out now.