Anyone who has been in my home will know instantly that I’m a huge cat lover. House and garden are festooned with cat related items. Therefore, I was delighted to receive a copy of Festival of Cats (collective noun) from lovely Lorna at Crumps Barn in return for an honest review. It’s my pleasure to share that review today.
Festival of Cats was published by Crumps Barn Studio on 28th February and is available for purchase here and directly from the publisher here.
Festival of Cats
Heroes and danger, comfort and claws
A black cat dreams of finding a new family, and a vampire is woken by a brush with ancient folklore. Then a cat tests just how far his nine lives run, before a stray moves in, and a kitten discovers a thirst for adventure …
Full of playfulness and wildness, this is a vibrant collection from eleven UK authors about the reality of being owned by a cat.
My Review of Festival of Cats
A pocket sized anthology of cat related writing.
As might be expected from such an eclectic mix of entries, I enjoyed some of the writing more than other pieces in Festival of Cats, but found the whole anthology a pleasing love letter to our feline friends – even if some of the cats were more positive in behaviour than others!
There’s everything represented here from a cat’s ability to raise a vampire, or become a matchmaker, through the definition of an ailurophile to the more prosaic antics of a cat trying to get a human to feed it, so that there’s something for every reader to enjoy. There’s a little touch of horror, a little touch of romance and, at the risk of being entirely anthropomorphic, it seems that the feline world is a metaphor for the human one, with homelessness, a need to belong, fear and kindness, for example, present in many of the pieces so that there’s a resonance to be found.
Accompanying the writing are some highly attractive illustrations that have a looseness and indistinct quality that represents to perfection the somewhat ephemeral nature of cats in human lives. They are tricky creatures to pin down!
Festival of Cats is a charming collection that would make a lovely gift for a cat lover, containing something for every age group.
About the Authors
Festival of Cats includes contributions from eleven UK authors featuring original work from: Diana Alexander, Amaris Chase, Daphne Denley, J. J. Drover, Harriet Hitchen, Rebecca McDowall, Jane Phillips, Angela Reddaway, Margaret Royall, Stuart Samuel and Penny Wright. All are cat lovers to the core. The cover and illustrations in the book are from Lorna Gray.
