First, I have been reading poetry the past few weeks and was browsing the library for a short, unusual work. This is a charming book written in verse, and each chapter is dedicated to a different kind of cat with its own kind of personality. From Nobel Laureates Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter to theatre greats Tom Stoppard and Alan Bennett to rising stars Polly Stenham and Florian Zeller, Faber Drama presents the very best theatre has to offer.

I understand that some people see it as a product of the times and the lack of political correctness, but I can't get past it regardless of those factors. This collection is a curious and artful homage to felines young and old, merry and fierce, small and unmistakably round.

The poems tells the stories of cats with names such as Jennyanndots, the old Gumbie cat, the ill-fated Growltiger and his lady Griddlebone, and the obstinate Rum Tum Tugger.

A few years ago I bought over 30 copies and (having annotated them) sent them out in lieu of Christmas cards. Despite this, it takes someone older to understand the eccentric brilliance of this darling little book. Eliot was born an American, moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 (at the age of 25), and became a British subject in 1927 at the age of 39. S. Eliot's classic and delightful collection of poetry about cats, with whimsical illustrations by Edward Gorey. Later the Old Man refers to one cat in particular, "Gus", short for "Asparagus", and goes on to recite parts of "Macavity: the Mystery Cat".

It would be more interesting in a picture book if there were more interaction between text and illustration, even for classics like this.

It is often thought of as a book for children and when you see a child getting tucked into bed or curling up on your knee and begging for a "cat poem" you'll see why children love it so much. cm, the quality, blue hardcover book with gold titling is covered in a catty-themed DJ also with gold coloured lettering that twinkles mischievously in the change of light. 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. I would have liked it if individual lines had had their own illustrations and it would have been good for the text to wrap itself around the pictures. In 1954, English composer Alan Rawsthorne set six of the poems in a work for speaker and orchestra entitled Practical Cats, which was recorded soon afterwards, with the actor Robert Donat as the speaker.Inside, are 64 thick creamy coloured pages, split over sections, as per the CONTENTS page at the front (1st image below refers). I mean, Vanity Fair actually ran an article entitled: ‘The Cats Catastrophe: Is Tom Hooper Going to Director’s Jail? I was very young and not a fan at poetry at all when I went to see it first and it wasn't until a friend told me recently that I even knew this book existed. S. Eliot published Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats through the publishing house Faber and Faber, where he served as an editor. Time "An absolutely marvelous rendition of Eliot's poetic classic, written for his godchildren and friends in the 1930s, which inspired the Broadway musical Cats .

C., is named after the fictional establishment mentioned in the poem "Bustopher Jones: The Cat About Town". But I think there is more to this - here you find insight in to the world of T S Eliot- from the source of those rather special names for the cats (and dogs) to the fact that London town would not be the same with out those feline characters making it their own. First illustrated edition, first impression, presentation copy, inscribed by the author as Old Possum on the front free endpaper, "to the Tandy Fambley from O. Many of the poems have refrains, so it’s easy to see why they lent themselves to use in a musical ( Cats).

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.