Charlie Mackesy

My friends are quite eclectic.

and very different.

So we all have really, and they bring out different parts of, of me.

Okay.

Which is why when someone dies, you sometimes lose that part of you that they brought up.

Which really interests me.

That is.

I've lost quite a few friends and the bits we used to laugh about and the silly noises we made and the...

Unless I can, but they're so unique.

And when I lost Barney, lovely Barney, my dog, who was also my friend, there was a language I used with him.

And I used to say every morning, before I fed him, I used to say, you're an extremely good little chap.

And I would extend the word extremely.

And he'd go crazy with the word extremely because you're extra, extra, extra special like that.

And it was his language.

And what's amazing for me with those words is that Colm, my Irish friend's daughter, Emilia, who's four,

when we were making the book together, I would sometimes, she would say, how did you speak to Barney?

I'd say, you're extreme.

And so she now, he films her running around the garden going, you're extra special.

You're extremely good.

And so for me, that's something that hasn't.