Meet the blogging PARROT that has thousands of readers in 40 countries – and is so popular it’s now written a book.
Coco the bird is owned by Richard Holloway who started taking his pet to local parish church meetings several years ago.
Richard told churchgoers he wanted to start a Christian blog from the point of view of Coco – and the local reverend and bishop both agreed.
Coco’s blog was soon being read in more than 40 different countries spanning six different continents – with over 5,000 readers.
Now Coco and Richard have written ‘The Random Thoughts of a Christian Parrot’ about morality and Christianity and is being sold to raise funds for a new outdoor church.
It is full of ”everyday reflections, humorous anecdotes and biblical references”.
The book is a compilation of 83 of the bird’s popular blog contributions and Zoom appearances in the group of 11 parishes in Exmoor in Devon over the past few years.
Coco says. “Parrots are particularly brainy and have been shown to have the same mental capacity as many three-year-old toddlers.
The entire tale is based on Holloway’s parrot Coco, and is being sold for £12 on Amazon.
Richard said: “I used my pet parrot as a sort of ‘front’ for it so it’s his blog, but I do look at the world through a parrot’s perspective in the book.
“It does feel like it could be quite realistic at times. Sometimes it’s very funny, and other times it’s quite challenging to write.
“We look at a parrot’s perspective, talking about what humans are doing to the amazon and the ethics of that, and who should really be kept in cages – humans or parrots.
“Most of the blogs are aimed at a wider message about morality and how we live our lives.
“We chose a few of these messages and put them into the book. Got a whole load of illustrations done etc.
“It’s done really well so far”.
Talking about the Christian focus of the book, Richard explained that people had been suggesting he make a book out of the blog posts for months.
He said: “I chose to do the book because I’d picked up these little pockets of unofficial fan clubs for the blog around Devon, and lots of people I’d never met kept contacting me suggesting I make it into a book.
“In the end I knew this idea of an outdoor church was coming up, so I thought this would be a good way to help fund that.
“I’m not very techy so I have a friend out in Canada who runs the blog for me, I just write the content, so I send them the entries and they put it up.
“They keep track of where it’s read, which apparently is around 40 countries.
“Readership goes up and down a little bit, but the highest readership we’ve had in any one week was about 5,000 readers.
“I live out in the countryside and there’s a group of 11 churches I’m involved with.
“I have quite a strong Christian faith myself, and I just thought you know – parrots have quite a unique perspective on life.
“They’re meant to be quite brainy, parrots are quite wise. In fact a lot of parrots have the mental age of a 3-year-old toddler – so they are quite switched on.
“Through the book we’ve raised around £2,000 roughly – and we’ve still got churches approaching us to buy multiple copies which we let them buy and keep 50% of any resale values.”
“The Random Thoughts of a Christian Parrot” is available on-line from Amazon and from The Bookery, Crediton’s Community Bookshop.
