BOOK (1939)

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
T.S. Eliot
Faber and Faber

It was Ezra Pound, to whom T.S. Eliot dedicated The Wasteland, who gave him the nickname 'Old Possum'. The Wasteland remains perhaps the best known of Eliot's poems, but the light verse of Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats is almost as widely recognised.

Most of the poems were not originally intended for publication. Eliot wrote them for his own amusement and for the enjoyment of his godchildren, to whom they were sent in letters.

They were first collected in 1939 and have been regularly reprinted since, usually in illustrated editions, of which the first featured drawings by Nicolas Bentley. The most recent collection, published in 2009 to mark the book's 70th anniversary, was illustrated by the artist responsible for The Gruffalo, Axel Scheffler.

Eliot's anthropomorphic cat poems still appeal to children and to cat lovers who, as well as enjoying the flights of comical fantasy, discern in them astute insights into feline psychology. Notable sketches include the industrious Old Gumbie Cat, the thuggish Growltiger, sleepy Old Deuteronomy and the perverse Rum Tum Tugger, whose psychological profile most cat owners will recognise instantly.

'The Rum Tum Tugger is artful and knowing,