*Shortlisted for the Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize* A Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year A
Wall Street Journal Book of the Year A Spectator Book of the Year A Times Literary Supplement
Book of the Year A New Yorker Book of the Year ¿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. 'Smart gorgeously written cultural history' TLS 'Delightful'
Guardian 'Excellent' Spectator 'Joyous cultural history' The Times '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. 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.
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. 'Through humour elegance and
sheer knowledge Hughes builds something remarkable' Literary Review 'If a Louis Wain cat were
reading this book he would raise his topper in tribute' The Times ' Catland is a tour de force
of (cat) history: sleek elegant and razor-sharp when needed' History Today 'Excellent ...
Hughes reveals a fascinating forgotten aspect of late Victorian and Edwardian Britain: how the
British fell in love with felines' Daily Mail 'An entertaining and often surprising cultural
history ... typically delivered in an inviting spirit of delight' New Yorker
