Judith Robinson and Scott Pack Chaired by Angus Phillips

Lecturer Judith Robinson and writer, editor and publisher Scott Pack uncover the indelible imprint that cats have left on the literary world over the centuries.

Robinson and Pack feature such famous literary cats as as Puss in Boots, Tom Kitten, Pangur Bán, the Cheshire Cat, Macavity, Pluto, Bob the street cat, as well as lesser known felines such as Homer, the cat with no eyes. They explore the role of cats in different literary genres and look at some real-life cats owned by the likes of Edgar Allen Poe, Ernest Hemingway, Patricia Highsmith and Muriel Spark. There are also narrator cats and cat companions from Japan, Eastern Europe, France, Greece, Germany and Finland.

Robinson is a senior lecturer at Bath Spa University’s Business School. Pack is editor-at-large at Eye and Lightning Books. He was formerly head buyer at Waterstones and a senior editor at Harper Collins. Discussions are chaired by Professor Angus Phillips, director of the Oxford International Centre for Publishing at Oxford Brookes University.

Presented by the Bodleian Libraries.