Book Reviews

For parents with younger children the dream of relaxing with a book during the holidays may seem too unlikely to indulge. Never fear; seasoned journalist Edward Stourton has written a book that allows you to do just this. Diary of a Dog Walker: timespent following a lead is a collection of his short and jolly writings for the Daily Telegraph. His subjects range widely from explosive sniffer dogs in Helmund Province to Patrick Bateson's pedigree breeding inquiry for the Kennel Club. Stourton even brings glamour to dog walking — rubbing shoulders with the likes of Maggie Thatcher in Battersea Park. I am indebted to him for introducing me to the term ‘furkid’ — the term for ‘pet-as-child-substitute’. And I unreservedly join him in his horror of dogs ‘who have become monomaniac in their devotion to tennis balls: they show almost no interest in anything but fetching…’

While Ed Stourton sensationalizes life with his dog, in Talk to the Tail: adventures in cat ownership and beyond journalist Tom Cox describes a life shared with animals to which many can relate. At first I was ambivalent about this man who seems to live so much of his life through his cats, all six of them. But an extraordinary picture emerges. His youth was spent with a father whose enthusiasm for the natural world shines from the pages. Badgers in the freezer and antics with a stuffed dog were unexceptional in Tom's childhood. Cox openly admits his neuroses and candidly explores his own feelings as the drama of his own life unfolds amidst his adventures with animals; and at his best he deftly avoids sentimentality. I suppose I should have seen the twist at the end of the tail (oops — tale) coming, but I didn't.