Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats: 1

Eliot, T. S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571252486 ISBN 13: 9780571252480

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2010

Cats! Some are sane, some are mad and some are good and some are bad.

Meet magical Mr Mistoffelees, sleepy Old Deuteronomy and curious Rum Tum Tugger. But you'll be lucky to meet Macavity because Macavity's not there!

In 1925 T.S. Eliot became co-director of Faber & Faber, who remain his publishers to this day. Throughout the 1930s he composed the now famous poems about Macavity, Old Deuteronomy, Mr Mistoffelees and many other cats, under the name of 'Old Possum'. In 1981 Eliot's poems were set to music by Andrew Lloyd Webber as Cats which went on to become the longest-running Broadway musical in history.

This charming new edition contains original colour illustrations by the award-winning illustrator of The Gruffalo, Axel Scheffler.

Review:

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter, it isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.

The phenomenal worldwide success in the 1980s of the musical Cats refuelled interest in T.S. Eliot's classic Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats on which the stage extravaganza was based. Old Possum's Book, originally published in 1939 and dedicated to Eliot's godchildren, contains a delightful rogues' gallery of felines, including the Rum Tum Tugger cat whose "disobliging ways are a matter of habit", Mr Mistoffelees "The Original Conjuring Cat" and Macavity: The Mystery Cat "the master criminal who can defy the law". Loved by generations of children and adults alike, Old Possum is perhaps most remarkable for having been written almost as an aside, a plaything, by Eliot, as a distraction from the internal religious and philosophical wranglings he charted in Four Quartets.

A warm and witty collection of free-verse poems, which demand to be read aloud and given full dramatic import, this edition of Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats has been reissued by Faber and Faber Limited in a slim pocket-sized edition, with original tongue-in-cheek illustrations by Nicolas Bentley. --Catherine Taylor

Review:

'If cats, witchy or not, are your child's thing don't miss the new Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. He captures the quirky soleminity of T.S.Eliot's classic in just a way to make 5+ readers fall in love with it.' (Times 2010-12-23)

These classic cat poems which sum up all the different kinds of cats there can be are given a delightful new look by bestselling Gruffalo illustrator Axel Scheffler. Scheffler's cats are cuddly creatures with expressive eyes through which the cats convey the hilarity and nonsense of T S Eliot's verses. (Julia Eccleshare Lovereading.co.uk)

A lovely edition of an old favourite ... it will be enjoyed again and again. (Carousel 2011-03-11)

This beautifully produced book should be introduced to every child and ought to be in every classroom for children to discover.' (Scholastic: Read Me 2011-04-19)