{"product_id":"catland-feline-enchantment-and-the-making-of-the-modern-world","title":"Catland: Feline Enchantment and the Making of the Modern World","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSome called it a craze. To others it was a cult. Join prize-winning historian Kathryn Hughes to discover how Britain fell in love with cats and ushered in a new era.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e‘He invented a whole cat world’ declared H. G. Wells of Louis Wain, the Edwardian artist whose anthropomorphic kittens made him a household name.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHis drawings were irresistible but Catland was more than the creation of one eccentric imagination. It was an attitude – a way of being in society while discreetly refusing to follow its rules. As cat capitalism boomed in the spectacular Edwardian age, prized animals changed hands for hundreds of pounds and a new industry sprung up to cater for their every need.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCats were no longer basement-dwelling pest-controllers, but stylish cultural subversives, more likely to flaunt a magnificent ruff and a pedigree from Persia. Wherever you found old conventions breaking down, there was a cat at the centre of the storm. Whether they were flying aeroplanes, sipping champagne or arguing about politics, Wain’s feline cast offered a sly take on the restless and risky culture of the post-Victorian world.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNo-one experienced these uncertainties more acutely than Wain himself, confined to a mental asylum while creating his most iconic work. Catland is a fascinating and fabulous unravelling of our obsession with cats, and the man dedicated to chronicling them.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kathryn Hughes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45048547180801,"sku":"9780008365141","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/8600\/8738\/files\/SIMPLEWEBSITEPRODUCTIMAGE-2025-04-22T110820.866.png?v=1745316527","url":"https:\/\/rarebirdsbooks.pro\/products\/catland-feline-enchantment-and-the-making-of-the-modern-world","provider":"Rare Birds Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}