{"product_id":"catland-9780008365141","title":"Catland","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\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","brand":"HarperCollins Publishers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51017446850903,"sku":"9780008365141","price":10.44,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780008365141.jpg?v=1750773610","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/catland-9780008365141","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}