{"product_id":"catland-book-kathryn-hughes-9780008365103","title":"Catland","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","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49560818417937,"sku":"GOR013691018","price":4.8,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49750957687057,"sku":"NGR9780008365103","price":16.89,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51856298967313,"sku":"CIN0008365105G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51871322964241,"sku":"GOR013686869","price":11.6,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52585283453201,"sku":"NLS9780008365103","price":16.79,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52738854355217,"sku":"GOR014606370","price":3.4,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0008365105.jpg?v=1751426460","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/products\/catland-book-kathryn-hughes-9780008365103","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}