We care for physical books very deeply in our family, even to the extent (see figure 1) of employing a fierce Book Guardian to ward off potential literary miscreants. When the para-military E-book Enforcers teleport themselves into our house to confiscate our library and hard-wire our brains into a small silver machine, we shall hurl deeply injurious slogans at them from behind the cat. There may also be finger-wagging.
Which brings me to the beastly, or probably bestial theme for today's post, namely my recent birthday. Among the generous and thoughtful gifts which were bestowed on me by friends and family (including a cd of Ecuadorian Baroque music, whose aural quality equals its obscurity cachet) was a trio of books with an animal theme, each as delightful as it is different from its companions.
Two Rivers Press produce the most exquisite edition of Christopher Smart's poem Cat Jeoffry. This is a consummately well-designed book, incorporating a bold Eric Gill typeface that combines readability with a playful hint of the antique, and illustrations in lino cut and rubber stamp by Peter Hay, which capture delightfully the playful, feral and mystical aspects of this noblest of animals.
Reaktion Books' Animals series has beguiled me for many years, offering delicious portrayals of individual animals through, in each case, a single author's examining the beast in its cultural, historical and mythological contexts, as well as the natural historical. The cover design for this series uses a simple but startlingly effective two-colour approach, incorporating the appropriate animal's silhouette. Kevin Jackson's Moose now shyly awaits my approach.
Finally, and including flora and other subjects, Ted Hughes' Season Songs, (Faber) written with younger readers in mind, is, along with Jeoffry a charming addition to our poetry section (which can be located a few feet above the cat). I'm off to tend to the literary menagerie now - by the sound of it, the mooses need feeding.
I have recently had the pleasure of being re-acquainted with that splendid serial publication The Fortean Times. This happy circumstance was precipitated by the less-than radical strategy of exchanging a series of metal coins for a copy in an appropriate local emporium. For those less Forteanate, I should explain that this monthly magazine embraces and reports on a range of unusual and esoteric phenomena, which vary from the undoubtedly explicable but nonetheless bizarre (its 'strange deaths' column, for example (now a series of major books)) through to the less verifiable realms, including - and especially - the spirit world, the undead and aliens. The modern incarnation of the magazine (I can't speak for its original approach) takes a knowing, healthily sceptical (but not dismissive) view of the paranormal and extra-terrestrial end of this scale, but combines this with a deeply informed and respectful attitude to ideas and practices such as the British tradition of magic and the existence or otherwise of alleged creatures such as the yeti. This month's edition, in fact, focuses on animals across the spectrum of verification, from the aforementioned yeti / sasquatch / bigfoot to a typically absorbing debunking feature on 'cemetery dogs' who seemed to stay loyal to their owners after the latter had passed on.
I was moved to include this (unsolicited and unremunerated) endorsement in my blog because of a few lovely new words and phrases this edition has taught me, including:
Relict a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon
Acheropite a supernormally produced portrait
Inattentional amnesia a mental state produced by noting and instantly forgetting something
Imaginal 'a realm between the intellectual and the sensible'
There are also lively and intelligent reviews of books and films which inhabit worlds that swim within the Fortean ken, and an erudite and energetic cartoon contribution from the estimable Hunt Emerson and Kevin Jackson.
A publication well worth your time - buy, borrow or astrally project yourself in front of a copy today.
