The title of this book is, of course, highly accurate. It is well known that while dogs have owners, cats have staff. I found it really interesting to learn about the relationship between writers and their cats. It turnout that apparently hard-nosed authors such as Hemingway (a macho man in the huntin', shootin' and fishin' universe), Johnson (who told a would-be writer that his prose was both good and original, but the parts that were good were not original, and vice-versa), Dickens (who wrote about the dire poverty in London) and Chandler (the epitome of hardboiled crime fiction) were actually real softies!
Between the chapters about writers are shorter sections called Paws for thought, in which we learn about cats in bookshops, libraries and a hotel (where the feline owner even has his own email address).
As a writer owned by three cats, I appreciate the general ethos of this book. Nine times out of ten my cats are very happy to leave me to my own devices when I am writing, but occasionally they will try to play with my pen as I write or, worse, leap up onto the keyboard demanding attention. (A few weeks ago one of them pressed a key combination that made my laptop think I wanted to reinstall windows!) .
I suspect that people who have cats willfind this book wryly amusing. But even if you don't have cats, I'm sure you'll find it interesting to learn about a hitherto relatively unpublicised side to some of your favourite authors.
