Alpacas and Llamas in Lockdown: A Chat with Author-Illustrator Matt Cosgrove

Chatting with Sam and Duncan on Hope Breakfast, Matt revealed that Dharma is quite a happy llama, unlike Llama Harmer, the bully character in his beloved series.

‘There have been some llama breeders that were unhappy with my portrayal of llamas in Macca the Alpaca,” he said, but that’s only based on the actual characteristics of the alpaca being smaller and more placid in nature, whereas llamas are bigger and stronger and more aggressive.

“But here we have a llama, the star of her own book, and the nicest llama you could ever hope to meet.”

Not only is Dharma a lovely llama, she’s also really into books. In fact, this new story is somewhat of an ode to the joy of reading.

“I love books and what they offer to people, from the imagination that they foster or the knowledge that they share,” Matt said. “So this is a love letter to books, it’s celebrating all the amazing things that books bring into our lives. And it’s because Dharma is a bit of a bookworm that she’s able to save the day in the end.”

For lovers of his previous Alpaca books, you’ll be pleased to know that Matt has been working hard through lockdown to ensure another Macca tale lands in bookstores before the end of 2020.

Catch the full interview with Matt Cosgrove in the audio player above.

Hope 103.2 is proudly supported by