A New York Review Books Classic.
The distinguished British man of letters, J R Ackerley hardly thought of himself as a dog lover when, well into middle age, he came into possession of a German shepherd. To his surprise, she turned out to be the love of his life, the ideal friend he had been searching for in vain for years.
This bittersweet retrospective account of their sixteen-year companionship is a profound and subtle meditation on the strangeness that lies at the heart of all relationships. In sometimes startling detail, it tells of Tulip's often erratic behaviour and very canine tastes, and of his own fumbling but determined efforts to ensure for her an existence of perfect happiness.
