'For I am possessed of a cat, surpassing in beauty' Jeoffry was a real-life tomcat who lived 250 years ago. His fame came much later, when fragments of a poem written by his owner were dusted off in a private library. The seventy-four lines in praise of Jeoffry are now among the most anthologised verse in the English language and have even been set to music. Biographer Oliver Soden combines meticulous research with brilliant invention to tell the whole story of Jeoffry, a cat who was 'the cleanest in the use of his forepaws of any quadruped'. The narrative moves from the infamous bordellos of Covent Garden to the lunatic asylum in which Jeoffry found himself confined with the brilliant and unstable Christopher Smart. In exchange for companionship during the darkest moments of his illness and incarceration, the poet would reward Jeoffry with the greatest tribute to a feline ever written.
