Cathedral Cats. Richard Surman

Copyright

       Collins

      a division of HarperCollins Publishers

      1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain in 2005 by HarperCollins Publishers.

      Copyright © Richard Surman 2006

      Richard Surman asserts the moral right to be identified as the author and photographer for this work.

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

      Source ISBN: 9780007235636

      Ebook Edition © MARCH 2015 ISBN: 9780007416882

      Version: 2015-03-12

Dedication

      For my children and grandchildren

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Introduction

St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Bury St Edmunds

Canterbury Cathedral

Chelmsford Cathedral

       Chester Cathedral

       Chichester Cathedral

       Durham Cathedral

       St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh

       Ely Cathedral

       Exeter Cathedral

       Gloucester Cathedral

       Hereford Cathedral

       Lichfield Cathedral

       Portsmouth Cathedral

       Ripon Cathedral

       Rochester Cathedral

       Salisbury Cathedral

       Southwell Minster

       Westminster Cathedral

       Worcester Cathedral

       Keep Reading

       Acknowledgements

       Other Books By

       About the Publisher

Introduction

       ‘A man has to work so hard so that something of his personality stays alive. A tomcat has it so easy, he has only to spray and his presence is there for years on rainy days’

       Albert Einstein

       Steve Mellor in conversation with Wolfie

      I’m not shy about my enduring admiration for cats. I grew up with them, and carry the scars to prove it. I regularly perform the supreme and nauseating sacrifice of opening tinned cat food at six o’clock in the morning. They share my office, every nook and cranny of our home. They dig their claws into my shins as a sign of pure pleasure, and magically become a deadweight on my lap whenever I want to move.

      So what do I get in return? Good conversation, and (mostly) uncontentious company. No one will ever convince me that my own two Burmese cats don’t talk to me, and it’s not just about food either: the weather, politics, art; you name it, my cats have an opinion. Cats are the most fascinating, enchanting, exasperating and contrary of all nature’s creatures. They do not substitute for human relationships, they complement them.

      The cats portrayed in this new collection of Cathedral Cats cover the whole gamut, ranging from farm cats like Lichfield Cathedral’s Kim, to aristocrats such as Chester Cathedral’s Olsen and Hansen. But no matter what the lineage of each cat is, they all have these essential feline features in common: a flagrant disregard for rules and convention; an uncanny tendency to identify and do exactly the opposite of what is wanted; an innate belief in their right to go anywhere they want; an ability to soothe and lower one’s blood pressure; and astonishing grace and dexterity. It would be fanciful and romantic to imagine that in past times cats were welcomed into cathedrals for any reason other than their skills at keeping down vermin, but today the number of cathedrals that good-humouredly tolerate the presence of cats is impressive. Maybe it has to do with the type of person that lives and works in today’s cathedrals: