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HistoryExtra podcast

Cat crazy: the Victorian mania for moggies

HistoryExtra podcast

HistoryExtra

History

4.34.7K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2024

⏱️ 31 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

At the end of the 19th century, Britain and America entered the grip of a cat craze that saw the humble moggy catapulted from urban nuisance to beloved household pet. Historian Kathryn Hughes speaks to Charlotte Hodgman about 19th-century attitudes to cats, and how Louis Wain's anthropomorphic drawings helped us fall in love with all things feline. (Ad) Kathryn Hughes is the author of Catland: Feline Enchantment and the Making of the Modern World (Fourth Estate, 2024). Buy it now from Amazon: http://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=164&awinaffid=489797&p=https%3A%2F%2Fapp.frame.io%2Freviews%2F9164ab37-aa66-49f6-bc25-ac496e432528&clickref=historyextra-social-histboty The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:48.8

d rules.go.com.com. Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History Magazine.

1:04.0

Today, there are between 10 and 12 million cats in the UK, with around 29% of households boasting a feline housemate.

1:14.3

But our love of the humble moggi hasn't always been as all-consuming.

1:19.6

In today's episode, historian and biographer Catherine Hughes speaks to Charlotte Hodgman

1:24.9

about the cat craze of the late 19th century, exploring how the

1:29.7

paintings of artist Louis Wayne ushered in a new era of cat worship. Why don't we, to start off with,

1:37.8

what made you want to write this book? Are you a cat person yourself? I am a cat person,

1:43.4

but I'm also a social historian, an academic social historian.

1:48.2

And so, well, of course, it's never a hardship to think or research or write about cats.

...

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