101 Cataclysms: For the Love of Cats Book

'101 Cataclysms: For the Love of Cats' is undoubtedly one of the finest books of cat photographs that is on the market; each cat is named and its breed given and almost all of them are in restful positions. This is not surprising for a cat!

Rachael Hale is one of the world's leading animal portrait photographers and she admirably uses that experience to capture the unique personality of each and every mischievous model in the adorable photographs within the book. How she managed to capture the many moods and bring out the characteristics of each cat in the collection must surely have tested her patience to the limit! In fairness, in her acknowledgements, Rachael does recognise that it took a team effort to produce the book, which is not surprising.

The photographs are complemented by quirky cat quotations and poems, from such notables as Mark Twain, Dr Seuss, Edward Lear, Tom Jones and others. And a couple of diverse quotations start the collection off: Carl Perkins' line from 'Blue Suede Shoes' 'It's one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, now go cat go!' (a must for an aged rock 'n' roller like myself) is followed by a more serious comment from Leonardo da Vinci 'The smallest feline is a masterpiece' - and so the scene is set.

Two of Rachael Hale's own cats, black domestic longhairs, feature early on as, Gianni and Versace cuddle together in a rather small bowl before Maximus, a very tiny British shorthair, is seen, eyes closed (no surprise there) on its owner's hand. Later on Guiness [sic] and Fatboy, two domestic shorthairs, also cuddle together in an even smaller bowl to demonstrate just how cosy two cats can be in confined spaces.

The magnificent photographs are too many to mention - we would have to delineate the whole book to do it full justice - but some of the treasures are: Tahlullah, a jet black Bombay who is apparently stone-deaf, looking comfortable, but quite menacing with her claws exposed, set against a jet black background; little Venezia, a brown tabby Tiffanie, after she has just enjoyed a romp inside a newspaper and is anxiously looking out to see if her owner is impressed with her efforts; Castello, a snow marbled Bengal, who is sitting just like a human on an armchair surveying all before her; Vadak, a chocolate shaded Burmilla, who is looking perplexed about the whole photographing exercise; Casper, a tiny blue point British shorthair, who is popping out of the top of a milk jug - I wonder if he drank it first?; Naomi, an Asian leopard, who in close up peering through the grass looks just like one and it is no wonder that the associated quotation is Sarah Orme Jewell's 'When she walked ... she stretched out long and thin like a tiger; and held her head high to look over the grass as if she were treading the jungle' and the delightful Cupcake, a foreign white Oriental, who lives up to her name by resting her head and paws on, yes, you've got it, a selection of cupcakes! Cupcake does not even look phased by the experience, either as she sleeps remorselessly on!

Cats have undoubtedly beguiled, bewitched and blessed us with their company since the civilised world began and seeing Rachael Hale's photographs brings those feelings very much to the fore.