Dead Pets

Greyfriars Bobby, space chimps, pampered lobsters - feline taxidermy, recipes for rabbit from around the globe - all domesticated animal life, and death, is here. Inspired by the untimely demise of his pet hamster Silky - for which, some twenty years later, he still holds himself responsible - Sam Leith explores and explains the universe of the Dead Pet. From dead pets in public life (Caligula's horse, Laika the astrodog) to the real-life pet cemeteries of Beverley Hills, from a selection of the cruellest deaths meted out to pets in the movies to facts about the animal actors and stunt doubles involved, from a comparison of attitudes and doctrines of pet afterlife across religions, to Ancient Roman recipes for dormice and songbirds, this is one stocking-filler that will make you look twice at the turkey this Christmas.