US Marshal Matt Dillon and Kitty

This month I read that one of my childhood heroes, Marshal Matt Dillon, played by James Arness, had died. I remember James from his role in the Gunsmoke series of the 60′s and 70′s. He was a cowboy of few words, but had a smouldering screen presence. I couldn't wait to get home from school and turn on the amazing new TV, that Dad had bought to sell in his electrical shop. Here in the UK, US Westerns became part of our culture. TV opened up a new world for me. I was cowboy crazy; Wells Fargo, Wagon Train, Cheyenne, Davy Crockett, Gunsmoke, Little House on the Prarie – couldn't get enough of them.  Being a tomboy, I aspired to be like gutsy Gunsmoke heroine  'Kitty', played by Amanda Blake. In one episode, Kitty drove a stagecoach in a bid to escape trouble. That was it, I was hooked. And in every book I now write there is a 'Kitty' – full of bravado, guts and true grit. It's these early heroines who inspired me to write gritty novels, as my publisher Simon& Schuster call them. So, reading the news of James Arness departing this mortal coil for greater adventures,  I have to thank all the cast of Gunsmoke. Amongst them the still sizzling Burt Reynolds and the late Dennis Weaver who played Chester. As a kid, I'd limp up and down our back yard, mumbling, Yessur Misser Dillon, then swiftly change character to Kitty, making eyes at her marshal as he strode, all 6'7″ of him, into the bar, deadpanning the bad guys, before they had chance to draw. Adios, James, hope you'll be seeing Kitty – and enjoying yourself the other side of Boot Hill.