Fiction

Ruth Lorimer’s strangely comfortless life changes when she finds a scruffy little cat on the stairs, but not everyone is pleased.

Little Ruth Lorimer has nice toys and a nice house, but she is dreadfully lonely. Then one day a scruffy little cat brings some warmth into her life.

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A tortoiseshell laments his hard life among heartless humans.

A tortoiseshell cat is chatting with a rather skinny grey cat. It is so difficult, he says plaintively, for a cat to find a proper home.

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Fate and a vicious professional thief named Fagin conspire to trap orphan Oliver Twist into a life of crime.

‘Oliver Twist, or, The Parish-Boy’s Progress’ is a novel by Charles Dickens. First published in February 1837, it has been dramatised for film and TV many times, and turned into a popular musical named ‘Oliver!’. Here is the first part of a two-part summary of the plot.

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Two men fed up with Athenian politics decide to build a city in the sky.

Aristophanes’s absurd play is two and half thousand years old, but its satire is as fresh today as it ever has been.

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Cats do have a conscience: it tells them when to look innocent.

According to Jerome’s friend Jephson, alongside Nonconformists cats are the only creatures in this world with a functioning conscience. ‘You might almost think they had a soul.’

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When a cat comes into your life, resistance is futile.

Aspiring author Elizabeth had been needing a little bit of good luck, and finding a stray black cat she named ‘Joseph’ seemed like a good omen.

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