📖 Publication Day Review ~ Cat Society by Ray Sadri 😻

The Book Guild
28 September 2023

My thanks to the author and publisher for my copy of this book 

Cat Society is a witty and bonkers story of life and politics in Westminster – reimagining the debates, events and headlines of recent years had the world been run by cats. A lot changes. A lot doesn’t. The country is on the brink of bankruptcy, and backbencher Douglas Schnitty is disappointed with the thousands of homeless cats sleeping by the bins. He gets frustrated with higher powers who only seem to care about their own interests and preserving the country’s finances. He schmoozes and sabotages his way through the political elite, from assisting the bombastic Hector Perp Pahpousson to disrupting the plans of the Prime Minister. Can his conscience save him, and the slum cats, as events spiral out of control?

😻 My Review..

Anything to do with our feline friends and I am drawn in like a magnet and Timmy, who keeps a close eye on current affairs, was beyond thrilled to be included in the invitation to read a story about his feline buddies in an imagined world of pawlitics. With a packet of his favourite cheese flavoured Dreamies close to paw, and a couple of Kitkats for me, we settled down, one rainy autumn afternoon to enter into the feline world of Cat Society.  

In the cat community around Whitehall MP Douglas Schnitty represents a homeless community of cats who are down on their luck, forced to live amongst the bins and forage for their food, these cats are several rungs down on a housing ladder with no hope of ever climbing to the top. Contrast this with the fat cat pawlititians with their fountains of rich cream and Sicilian fish soup and you have all the makings of an unfair society. Concerned for the welfare of the homeless Douglas attempts to do whatever he can in order to help the unfortunate members of the cat society but in doing so he finds that no cat is ever far from being at rock bottom.

Cat Society is a really fun read, it doesn't take itself too seriously and yet covers some of the deeper issues which strike a parallel in our own world today. There are the usual shenanigans amongst pawliticians, the same jostling for pawer and the insider petty squawbles which we, all too often, associate with our own politicians in Whitehall. The author writes well with a quirky eye for even the smallest detail and in using his own background knowledge has created an imaginative world of a feline inhabited London, with a rich and diverse population of unusual cats who leap off the page with oodles of feline confidence.

Photo: Jaffreadstoo

About the Author

Ray Sadri has been a radio journalist, a central government Chief Press Officer and now runs campaigns in the worlds of politics and business. He lives with his fiancé, baby boy and Norwegian Forest Cat, Mads — who naturally reigns supreme in the family. Ray explains: “Living with cats and working with politicians has taught me that the two share a great deal in common. They can be intelligent, cunning, cute, and lethal in equal measures. One thing’s for sure, we can’t live without them. It is this realisation that helped me come up with the concept of Cat Society.”

Twitter @catsocietyuk #CatSociety

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