{"product_id":"9780008365141","title":"Catland : Feline Enchantment and the Making of the Modern World by Kathryn Hughes","description":"*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\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Paperback \/ softback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56221459775861,"sku":"9780008365141","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780008365141.jpg?v=1762194306","url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/9780008365141","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}