Jeoffry

‘Jeoffry is the greatest cat in the English language, and here are his life and times, wittily and deftly imagined, entwined with a memoir of Kit Smart, lunatic and poet, and the London he shared with Samuel Johnson and his cat Hodge. An inspired and original tale’ – Hilary Mantel, author of The Mirror and the Light

‘Simply unforgettable ... Oliver Soden has written a little masterpiece ... The life and times of Jeoffry, the cat described in Smart’s famous poem, are imagined here by Soden in one of the most beautiful and haunting books of recent times. This is a book to savour, reflect upon, and give to friends ... It is beautifully written. It is gentle. It is full of historical detail and whimsy, in more or less equal measure. It is a complete treat ... a lovely, enchanting piece of work’ – Alexander McCall Smith, author of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency

‘A heart-lifting delight; I absolutely loved it. A triumph’ – Alexander Harris, author of Weatherland

‘An absolute classic … Oliver Soden combines the originality of wit and concept found in Virginia Woolf’s Flush with an intimate portrayal of the humanity of a cat that T.S. Eliot understood so well. I found myself so gloriously moved and entertained by Jeoffry who has leapt purring and stretching, hunting and curling his way into my heart’ – Juliet Nicolson, author of A House Full of Daughters

‘Mr Soden’s delightful, insinuating book curls around your thoughts and tickles you with its whiskers ... Soden jokes that if Jubilate Agno is a magnificat (a song of praise to God), the Jeoffry verses are a magnifi-cat. His own magnifi-cat recreation, bound in cloth-covers and sporting a Gainsborough kitty, would make a fine stocking filler – silk, buckled or gartered' – Economist

‘Oliver Soden has done for Christopher Smart’s cat Jeoffry what Virginia Woolf did for the Brownings’ dog, Flush. Except he’s made a much better job of it. This is a beautifully written, wise and wonderfully entertaining account of loyalty and the meaning of biography. Smart’s cat was indeed a magical being, and Oliver Soden has plucked a wealth of literary art from the cat’s life and from Smart’s unforgettable vision. I intend to give a copy to everybody I like’ – Andrew O’Hagan, author of Mayflies

‘In Jeoffry: The Poet's Cat, Oliver Soden has pulled off a difficult feat. His book about the life and adventures of Christopher Smart's considerable cat is charming without being twee, light but not lightweight, inventive within the bounds of respect for history ... Beautifully conceived and done with wit and tenderness. A book to cherish in times when Smart's madhouse seems close to home’ – Daniel Karlin, Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year

‘Protagonist of the most anthologised section of the mad poet Christopher Smart’s Jubilate Agno, the eccentrically spelled ginger tom now takes a fresh lease of fictionalised life in this jeu d’esprit … It’s at once a sly introduction to Christopher Smart and the literary milieu of 18th-century London … and a cat’s-eye view of 18th-century social history – from the brothels and theatres of central London to the treatment of mental illness … It has a good deal, too, to tell the reader about cats … But it also poses the implicit question of how fictional biographies are in any case … All biographies adopt points of view, make suppositions, put fictional flesh on the bones of the facts the record gives us; and their test is how persuasively they do so. This one does so with great panache and not a little of the writerly flourish’ – Sam Leith, Spectator

‘An intensely poignant portrait of a celebrated cat … told with vibrant pace and energy … As we follow the irresistible subject towards and through his interaction with the poet who would give him his immortality, we smell the streets and the confined spaces, we suffer the blows, we weep the tears. This beautifully written and highly affecting book is a must-read for lovers of poetry, of the eighteenth century, and of cats’ – Jane Glover, author of Handel in London

‘Although Jeoffry has become famous through Smart’s much-anthologised poem "My Cat Jeoffry", he has left no other pawprint on the historical record ... It is this gap that Oliver Soden proceeds to plug in his delightful "biography" of Jeoffry ... In a particularly fine evocation of a cat’s-eye view, Soden has Jeoffry distinguish Smart’s asylum visitors from each other by the shape of their lower legs: he is able to tell apart the bulging calves and hobbled feet of Dr Johnson and the more springy limbs of Charles Burney. When David Garrick arrives, Jeoffry recognises him from the way the actor’s theatrical vibrato moves the air in the little cell. It is, after all, what whiskers are for’ – Kathryn Hughes, Literary Review

‘A bracing and heartfelt scamper through Georgian London, and the life of a much-loved cat – like Jeoffry himself, this delightful book is an irresistible mixture of 'gravity and waggery'. With its supporting cast of eighteenth-century luminaries such as Handel, Dr Johnson and the bloated brothel-keeper Mother Douglas, this is a carefully researched and beautifully imagined feline biography’ – Emily Brand, author of The Fall of the House of Byron

‘Inspired by Flush, Virginia Woolf’s “biography” of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s dog, Soden’s book is a witty, charming, semi-fictional biography of the cat that kept Smart company in the madhouse’ – Tristram Fane Saunders, Daily Telegraph

‘Jeoffry: The Poet’s Cat is an engrossing recreation of eighteenth-century London at its grittiest, from brothels to insane asylums, as seen through the eyes of a famous cat. The blend of scrupulous scholarship with imaginative invention is wonderfully effective’ – Leo Damrosch, author of The Club

‘I greatly enjoyed this book ... Oliver Soden has found a really vivid "ground-level" way to capture Georgian London, and as soon as Smart comes on the scene a most moving chemistry develops between the cat who has no words and the poet who is adrift in them’ – Ann Wroe, author of Francis

'Ravishing ... Jeoffry’s life is envisioned here with ingenuity and tact … Soden can write, and knows feline liquidity and transformation: Jeoffry “tipping himself off the wall” is matched when he is a “thrumming loaf of warmth” at the bed’s foot … Soden doesn’t duck cruelty and pain, and Jeoffry ends movingly, back with Smart’s poem, “for nothing is sweeter than his peace when at rest” … A lovely little book' – Min Wild, TLS