The Book, Cat, & Cat Book Lovers Almanac

of historical trivia regarding books, cats, and other animals. Actually this blog has evolved so that it is described better as a blog about cats in history and culture. And we take as a theme the advice of Aldous Huxley: If you want to be a writer, get some cats. Don't forget to see the archived articles linked at the bottom of the page.

May 20, 2017

May 20, 1975

Tom Cox (May 20, 1975) is a British writer, often for the Guardian where he has variously been a music critic, and country life columnist.

And every couple of years he coughs up a cat book:

Under The Paw: Confessions of a Cat Man (2008)

Talk to the Tail: Adventures in Cat Ownership and Beyond (2011)
The Good, the Bad, and the Furry: Life with the World's Most Melancholy Cat (2013)
Close Encounters of the Furred Kind
(2015)

And for those felines speaking another European language, there are translations:

L'uomo a ventiquattro zampe. Sette vite con i gatti (2008) 
Alles für die Katz (2011)
Orso. Le avventure di famiglia di un gatto filosofo (2015)
Le Bon, la Brute et le Toudou (2017)

Here is part of an essay he wrote (2010) about dating people who think multiple cats a drawback:

....I’m not sure that single men ...worry quite so much about having a moggy slinking in the rear of their shot on a dating site, but Crazy Cat Woman is now so ubiquitous, she is altering the way we all think about our pets, whether we’re male or female. She’s been here forever, yet she seems to be particularly prevalent in modern culture – on The Simpsons, on sitcoms, endlessly referenced in daily conversation. “You want to be careful. You’ll turn into the lady with all the cats and no friends!” “Uh-Oh. You’ve got hair on your jumper. Mad Cat Woman Alert!”

Certainly, there are people out there who project too much onto their animals, and start to let their hygiene standards slip as a result of being around them, but they are in the minority, and it seems sad that we are going to quite such lengths to hide our cat love because we’re worried what the world thinks.....


The link for the above has nice pictures. And this link lists his recent articles in the Guardian, about a variety of subjects.

Tom Cox lives in Devon.

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