{"product_id":"9780008365103-catland-feline-enchantment-and-the-making-of-the-modern-world","title":"Catland: Feline Enchantment and the Making of the Modern World","description":"\u003cp\u003e*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\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Book Grocer","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48223857869019,"sku":"9780008365103","price":25.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/9df37b83-5038-45d0-a4f0-3b72fa2a34de.jpg?v=1770298464","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/9780008365103-catland-feline-enchantment-and-the-making-of-the-modern-world","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}