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First published in Great Britain in 2005 by HarperCollins Publishers.
Copyright © Richard Surman 2006
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Source ISBN: 9780007235636
Ebook Edition © MARCH 2015 ISBN: 9780007416882
Version: 2015-03-12
For my children and grandchildren
Contents
St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Bury St Edmunds
St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh
‘A man has to work so hard so that something of his personality stays alive. A tomcat has it so easy, he has only to spray and his presence is there for years on rainy days’
Albert Einstein
Steve Mellor in conversation with Wolfie
I’m not shy about my enduring admiration for cats. I grew up with them, and carry the scars to prove it. I regularly perform the supreme and nauseating sacrifice of opening tinned cat food at six o’clock in the morning. They share my office, every nook and cranny of our home. They dig their claws into my shins as a sign of pure pleasure, and magically become a deadweight on my lap whenever I want to move.
So what do I get in return? Good conversation, and (mostly) uncontentious company. No one will ever convince me that my own two Burmese cats don’t talk to me, and it’s not just about food either: the weather, politics, art; you name it, my cats have an opinion. Cats are the most fascinating, enchanting, exasperating and contrary of all nature’s creatures. They do not substitute for human relationships, they complement them.
The cats portrayed in this new collection of Cathedral Cats cover the whole gamut, ranging from farm cats like Lichfield Cathedral’s Kim, to aristocrats such as Chester Cathedral’s Olsen and Hansen. But no matter what the lineage of each cat is, they all have these essential feline features in common: a flagrant disregard for rules and convention; an uncanny tendency to identify and do exactly the opposite of what is wanted; an innate belief in their right to go anywhere they want; an ability to soothe and lower one’s blood pressure; and astonishing grace and dexterity. It would be fanciful and romantic to imagine that in past times cats were welcomed into cathedrals for any reason other than their skills at keeping down vermin, but today the number of cathedrals that good-humouredly tolerate the presence of cats is impressive. Maybe it has to do with the type of person that lives and works in today’s cathedrals: