'An inspired and original tale ... Jeoffry is the greatest cat in the English language' Hilary Mantel

'Simply unforgettable ... one of the most beautiful and haunting books of recent times' Alexander McCall Smith

'A heart-lifting delight; I absolutely loved it. A triumph' Alexandra Harris

 

 

Prize-winning biographer Oliver Soden combines meticulous research with passages of dazzling invention to recount the life of the cat praised as 'a mixture of gravity and waggery'. The narrative roams from the theatres and bordellos of Covent Garden to the cell where Smart was imprisoned for mania. At once whimsical and profound, witty and deeply moving, Soden's biography plays with the genre like a cat with a toy. It tells the story of a poet and a poem, while setting Jeoffry's life and adventures against the roaring backdrop of eighteenth-century London.