{"product_id":"9780008365141","title":"Catland : Feline Enchantment and the Making of the Modern World","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eby Hughes, Kathryn \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eUnited Kingdom, Great Britain\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished 24\/04\/2025 by HarperCollins Publishers (Fourth Estate Ltd) in the United Kingdom. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePaperback | 416 pages\u003c\/p\u003e197 x 129 x 33mm | 392g\u003chr\u003e\u003cp\u003e*Shortlisted for the Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize*\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e  A Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e A Wall Street Journal Book of the Year\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e A Spectator Book of the Year\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e A New Yorker Book of the Year\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e ?Some called it a craze. To others it was a cult. Join prize-winning historian Kathryn Hughes to discover how Britain fell in love with cats and ushered in a new era.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e  'Smart, gorgeously written cultural history’ TLS\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e  ‘Delightful’ Guardian\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e  ‘Excellent’ Spectator\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e  ‘Joyous cultural history’ The Times\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e  ‘He invented a whole cat world’ declared H. G. Wells of Louis Wain, the Edwardian artist whose anthropomorphic kittens made him a household name. His drawings were irresistible but Catland was more than the creation of one eccentric imagination. It was an attitude – a way of being in society while discreetly refusing to follow its rules.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e As cat capitalism boomed in the spectacular Edwardian age, prized animals changed hands for hundreds of pounds and a new industry sprung up to cater for their every need. Cats were no longer basement-dwelling pest-controllers, but stylish cultural subversives, more likely to flaunt a magnificent ruff and a pedigree from Persia. Wherever you found old conventions breaking down, there was a cat at the centre of the storm.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Whether they were flying aeroplanes, sipping champagne or arguing about politics, Wain’s feline cast offered a sly take on the restless and risky culture of the post-Victorian world. No-one experienced these uncertainties more acutely than Wain himself, confined to a mental asylum while creating his most iconic work. Catland is a fascinating and fabulous unravelling of our obsession with cats, and the man dedicated to chronicling them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e ‘Through humour, elegance and sheer knowledge, Hughes builds something remarkable’ Literary Review\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e ‘If a Louis Wain cat were reading this book, he would raise his topper in tribute’ The Times\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e ‘Catland is a tour de force of (cat) history: sleek, elegant and razor-sharp when needed’ History Today\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e ‘Excellent … Hughes reveals a fascinating, forgotten aspect of late Victorian and Edwardian Britain: how the British fell in love with felines’ Daily Mail\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e ‘An entertaining and often surprising cultural history … typically delivered in an inviting spirit of delight’ New Yorker\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tales on Market Street","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43491393208526,"sku":"9780008365141","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7727\/4318\/files\/9780008365141.jpg?v=1776348900","url":"https:\/\/top-hatandtales.co.uk\/products\/9780008365141","provider":"Top Hat \u0026 Tales","version":"1.0","type":"link"}