Regal, elegant, affectionate, calculating, and of course utterly adorable, the cat has been part of our lives for millennia. The Cat Book pairs stunning historical illustrations with informative and amusing text in a tour of feline history from the earliest days of civilisation to the twenty-first century. Taking in the cat goddess of Ancient Egypt, where people shaved their eyebrows to mourn the death of a cat, the medieval Irish law that calculated a cat's value at three cows, Samuel Johnson's doting care for his oyster-loving cat Hodge, Oscar, the ship's cat that survived three shipwrecks in the Second World War, and the cats of famous people from Cardinal Richelieu to Edward Lear, this is the perfect gift for the cat lover - a guide to the role of cats in history and the people who have loved them.

Kathleen Walker-Meikle is the author of The Dog Book: Historical Dogs of Distinction (also by Old House), Medieval Pets, Medieval Cats and Medieval Dogs. She was awarded her PhD in History at University College London and is currently continuing her research into animals in the Middle Ages.