Great Writers and the Cats who Owned Them

Susannah Fullerton

• Publisher: Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
• Year: 2026
• eBook ISBN:
  9781851246915
• Print ISBN:
  9781851246540

A fun, charming romp through the history of seventeen great writers and the cats who captured their hearts.

Throughout history, cats and writers have banded together in a magical combination of comfort, companionship, and inspiration. Great Writers and the Cats who Owned Them features famous authors ranging from Samuel Johnson whose cat Hodge dined on oysters, to Edward Lear whose charismatic cat Foss was missing half his tail, to Dorothy L. Sayers who rescued her kitten Blitz from a bombsite. Each chapter delves into the relationship between authors and the felines who condescended to share their homes and desks, revealing intriguing aspects of the writers' lives and celebrating how cats—pure-bred and mixed-breeds, large and small, graceful and eccentric—enriched the world of literature. Including fun additional features on cats in bookshops, libraries, and hotels, and illustrated with charming line drawings, this book is a perfect gift for cat lovers everywhere.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Hodge, for whom Dr Johnson bought oysters
• Selima, whose death was memorialized for Horace Walpole
• Rumpelstilzchen, ruler of Robert Southey’s ‘Cat’s Eden’
• Mysouff I, who permitted Alexandre Dumas to escort him home
• Foss, who owned Edward Lear
• Bob, who helped Charles Dickens open letters
• Bambino, whose slave was Mark Twain
• La Chatte, who held Colette under her spell
• Daffy, who knew Anne of Green Gables before anybody else
• Nelson, who was Chief Mouser to Sir Winston Churchill
• Boise, who was a Christmas treat for Ernest Hemingway
• Old Timer, who gained Margaret Mitchell’s sympathies
• Blitz, who murdered mice for Dorothy L. Sayers
• Sambo, who helped Paul Gallico remain in a state of delusion
• Bluebell, who critiqued Dame Muriel Spark’s manuscripts
• El Magnifico, who enchanted Doris Lessing
• Wooskit, who morphed into Slinky Malinki for Dame Lynley Dodd
• Tailpiece
• Notes
• Further Reading
• Acknowledgements
• Index