Behind every famous typewriter and computer screen sits a feline friend controlling the strings on their owner’s narrative. 

At least, this is what Susannah Fullerton says in her latest novel, Great Writers and the Cats Who Owned Them. 

From England, Scotland, France, America and Canada, all the way to NZ, Susannah has rounded up a collection of 17 famous writers throughout history whose closest companions have influenced, inspired and have had a purr-tinent role in their writing careers.

A self-proclaimed cat enthusiast, Susannah says there is something very special about cats. Unlike their doggy companions, cats only bestow their love sparingly, although she does hope to write a tail-wagging companion about man’s best friend in the future. 

“I’ve always been a cat person,” she says.

“I’ve had cats throughout my life, and because I’m so crazy about famous writers and their works, I thought it might make a nice combination.

“Cats own people, but dogs love people.” 

Starting with poet and essayist Samuel Johnson, whose cat Hodge dined on oysters, Susannah’s meticulous research included many trips to libraries, reading essays and finding honorary statues of her author’s beloved pets. 

Best known for her presidency of the Jane Austen Society of Australia for almost 30 years, Susannah isn’t a stranger to collecting the oddest tidbits of information about some of the world’s most relevant authors. 

An author of several books, Susannah said this venture took a year alone to collect all of her research. A process that she says was tedious and frustrating at times. 

Charles Dickens (whose cat Bob was deaf) has been universally credited to have said: “What greater gift than the love of a cat”. A quote that may not have even left his pen. 

“There is actually no real evidence that Dickens ever wrote that line,” says Susannah. 

“You’ve got to be cautious with anything on the internet as it’s not always well researched.

“I’d go to biographies of authors and I’d look up ‘cat’ in the index or any reference to their pets, but they are not always listed.”

Among the writers she researched, Susannah’s greatest help, and closest correspondent, was with Dame Lynley Dodd, the NZ children’s writer, infamous for her Hairy Maclary and Friends series.

Dame Lynley’s cats had been the inspiration for her Scarface Claw and Slinki Malinki characters. 

“She is the only living author in my book, and she was incredibly helpful by sending me information about her cats,” Susannah says. 

Scattered throughout the book are facts and stories about the history of cat care, their meddlesome paws in bookshops, libraries and theatres, and their influence in children’s education and literacy, such as in the Cat and the Hat’s ability to teach children to read. Small caricatures of the writer’s mew-ses are seen throughout. 

Outside of Susannah’s piqued interest in Jane Austen (whose 250th birth date is being celebrated this year), she also runs literary tours around the UK, Europe and the US.  

Susannah will be at the Paperchain Bookstore, Manuka, on October 14 for a book signing.