Historian and critic Kathryn Hughes’ Catland is a riproaring, culturally rich feline escapade that depicts how, over roughly 70 years, cats went from being treated as feral rascals – useful as pest controllers during Victorian times but broadly unloved, and whose promiscuity nearly led to a cull – and how things started to change for them favourably during Edwardian times, with World War II looming on the horizon.

The book takes its title from artist Louis Wain, who deemed the phrase ‘Catland’ to encompass his anthropomorphic kitten illustrations. The rebelliously eccentric artist Wain does feature prominently here, and deservedly so: Hughes outlines how Wain’s art had an impact on society’s conscience and helped turn the tide favourably for cats. The illustrator’s life has a tragic coda, ending up in an asylum having bankrupted himself trying to invent an everlasting lightbulb.

As Hughes explains in her introduction, Catland is not a purely Wain-centric biography, rather a portrait of a phenomenon Wain, and his surreal and thought-provoking illustrations, had a part in creating. As for Thomas Hardy, his cat-related tale – as featured here as well – is deeply shocking. A fact-filled page-turner that ought to appeal to cat lovers and/or socially inquisitive historians.