Old Tom

Review also includes:

Old Tom at the Beach, 96pp, 978-1905117116

These two stories about an independently minded cat and his owner are thoroughly entertaining. In Old Tom, spinster Angela Throgmorton finds a homeless, bedraggled kitten sitting on her doorstep. She promptly takes him in, names him Old Tom and sets about rearing him as her own. Since she lives a humdrum sort of life in which good manners figure largely, she brings him up accordingly. But Old Tom is different – a free spirit, at all times inquisitive, fearless and ready for action. Their contrasting natures soon spark all manner of comic situations. Angela almost chucks him out of the house, but not quite. Old Tom at the Beach continues the adventures, again contrasting the cat’s endless exuberance and the anarchy he causes with Angela’s restrained lifestyle. The text, consisting of a sentence or phrase per page, is deliberately understated, though never condescending, so allowing the illustrations to take over the storytelling. And they do so admirably through a bold and economical line that captures the characters’ every posture and gesture.