Tobermory Cat

Debi Gliori's delightful The Tobermory Cat was one of the most popular children's books of 2012. Based on a real cat known to local inhabitants as well as thousands of visitors to Mull, the island's ginger tom and his extraordinary antics have now become world famous. Young children will love this counting book in which the Tobermory Cat wakes up hungry and explores the town in search of something to eat.

Tobermory is a short story by Saki. Hector Hugh Munro (18 December 1870 - 13 November 1916), better known by the pen name Saki, and also frequently as H. H. Munro, was a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirised Edwardian society and culture. He is considered a master of the short story and often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. Influenced by Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, and Kipling, he himself influenced A. A. Milne, Nol Coward, and P. G. Wodehouse.Beside his short stories (which were first published in newspapers, as was customary at the time, and then collected into several volumes), he wrote a full-length play, The Watched Pot, in collaboration with Charles Maude; two one-act plays; a historical study, The Rise of the Russian Empire, the only book published under his own name; a short novel, The Unbearable Bassington; the episodic The Westminster Alice (a Parliamentary parody of Alice in Wonderland), and When William Came, subtitled A Story of London Under the Hohenzollerns, a fantasy about a future German invasion of Britain.

Nineteen brilliant stories from the satirical master about talking cats, fearsome ferrets, and absurd humans . . . At a country house party, Cornelius Appin announces that he has discovered a method by which animals can be taught to speak. His latest pupil is none other than Tobermory, the ginger cat belonging to his hosts, Sir Wilfred and Lady Blemley. As the guests express astonishment and incredulity, Sir Wilfred goes off to find Tobermory, who is lounging in the smoking room waiting for his tea. What Appin claims is true, and Tobermory demonstrates his remarkable talents—with unanticipated results. With this and other witty, imaginative, and insightful stories, this collection is a delight that captures the foibles of society in Edwardian England, yet remains entertainingly timeless in its portraits of human (and animal) nature.

Saki’s Cats rounds up the tales about cats, big and small, by the undisputed master of the short story. ‘Tobermory’, one of Saki’s most famous pieces, demonstrates the danger that would ensue from granting cats the power of speech – animals have long lurked unseen, eavesdropping, in the background. The tom in ‘The Philanthropist and the Happy Cat’ is the only one to enjoy his meal, as is the leopard in ‘The Guests’. In ‘The Penance’ and ‘Mrs Packletide’s Tiger’, hunters who put cats in their sights are humiliated and blackmailed. ‘The Achievement of the Cat’ considers how cats have come to be served by the human race. In addition to the short stories about cats, Saki’s Cats also collects Saki’s juvenile letters to his sister Ethel about the tiger cub he adopted while living in Burma. The feisty felines of these tales are the only clear winners, and, with a characteristic smirk and dash of his pen, it is Edwardian Society that Saki sends slinking off, tail between its legs. 'His stories and novels appear as delightful and […] sophisticated as they did when he first published them.' Noël Coward

This early work by H. H. Munro was originally published in 1911 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'The Chronicles of Clovis' is a collection of short stories, including 'The Great Weep', 'Tobermory', 'Adrian', and many more. Hector Hugh Munro was born in Akyab, Burma in 1870. He was raised by aunts in North Devon, England, before returning to Burma in his early twenties to join the Colonial Burmese Military Police. Later, Munro returned once more to England, where he embarked on his career as a journalist, becoming well-known for his satirical ‘Alice in Westminster’ political sketches, which appeared in the Westminster Gazette. Arguably better-remembered by his pen name, ‘Saki’, Munro is now considered a master of the short story, with tales such as ‘The Open Window’ regarded as examples of the form at its finest.

With work by 150 writers and artists, The Book of Cats is the most comprehensive cat anthology published. It is extravagantly illustrated with over a hundred pictures, 16 in full colour.The Book of Cats includes:P.G. Wodehouse's Webster, Saki's Tobermory, Kipling's Cat that Walked by himself, T.S. Eliot's Macavity and Growltiger, Christopher Smart's cat Jeoffrey, and Don Marquis's mehitabel.The cat classics of Walter de la Mare, W.W. Jacobs and Edgar Allan Poe.Catty stories from Patricia Highsmith and Jean-Paul Sartre.Cat tales by Ted Hughes, Paul Gallico and Giles Gordon.The cats of Robert Southey, Théophile Gauthier andFeline thoughts by Aldous Huxley, Henry Fielding and Mark Twain.Cat poems by Robert Graves, Marianne Moore, Dorothy L. Sayers, Thomas Gray and Alan Sillitoe.Pussycat rhymes by Ogden Nash, Stevie Smith and Roger McGough.Cat paintings by Bonnard, Chagall, Lucien Freud, Gainsborough, Hockney, Gwen John, Paul Klee and Douanier Rousseau.In all, a rich, affectionate medley of prose, poetry and picture in praise of that most elusive and fascinating of creatures - the cat.

The delightful second installment in Alexander McCall Smith’s already hugely popular new detective series, The Sunday Philosophy Club, starring the irrepressibly curious Isabel Dalhousie — editor of the Journal of Applied Ethics — and her no-nonsense housekeeper, Grace. When Isabel’s niece, Cat, asks Isabel to run her delicatessen while she attends a wedding in Italy, Isabel meets a man with a most interesting problem. He recently had a heart transplant, and is suddenly plagued with memories of events that never happened to him. The situation appeals to Isabel as a philosophical question. Is the heart truly the seat of the soul? And it piques her insatiable curiosity: could the memories be connected with the donor’s demise? Grace, of course, thinks it is none of Isabel’s business. Add to the mix the lothario Cat brings home from the wedding in Italy, who, in accordance with all that Isabel knows about lotharios, shouldn’t be trusted . . . but goodness, he is charming. That makes two mysteries of the heart to be solved — just the thing for Isabel Dalhousie.

The delectable new installment in the bestselling and already beloved adventures of Isabel Dalhousie and her no-nonsense housekeeper, Grace. When friends from Dallas arrive in Edinburgh and introduce Isabel to Tom Bruce – a bigwig at home in Texas – several confounding situations unfurl at once. Tom’s young fiancée’s roving eye leads Isabel to believe that money may be the root of her love for Tom. But what, Isabel wonders, is the root of the interest Tom begins to show for Isabel herself? And she can’t forget about her niece, Cat, who’s busy falling for a man whom Isabel suspects of being an incorrigible mama’s boy. Of course Grace and Isabel’s friend Jamie counsel Isabel to stay out of all of it, but there are irresistible philosophical issues at stake – when to tell the truth and when to keep one’s mouth shut, to be precise – and philosophical issues are meat and drink to Isabel Dalhousie, editor of the Review of Applied Ethics. In any case, she’s certain of the ethical basis for a little sleuthing now and again – especially when the problems involve matters of the heart.