WRITERS’ PETS

Got a grip on Grip or is your literary pet knowledge rather Limpy? Our handy guide is here to help

Grip – Charles Dickens

Dickens’ pet inspired Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven and Grip is now preserved in a glass case in Philadelphia Free Library.

Bambino – Mark Twain

Behind every great American novelist is a great cat. Or several – Twain lived with 19 at one time. Bambino was a favourite.

Pinka – Virginia Woolf

A cocker spaniel, given to Woolf by Vita Sackville-West. Like all Woolf’s dogs, Pinka was taught to put out a match after her mistress lit a cigarette.

Boise – Ernest Hemingway

Boise sat, slept and ate meals with his master, who showed more tenderness to his cats than to some of his women.

Limpy – Flannery O’Connor

Flannery collected chickens as a child, and later peacocks. Their ‘impressive tails’ are surely a good choice for a writer.

Herman – Maurice Sendak

Forget the wild things. We know where the domesticated things are – Herman, a German Shepherd, is one in a long line of Sendak canine companions.

Charley – John Steinbeck

This all-American writer’s poodle was actually French born. His full name was Charles le Chien.

Tyke – Jack Kerouac

Kerouac mourned the death of Tyke, “a big yellow Persian”, as if he were a “little brother”. Big Sur? Big wuss, more like.

Mitz – Leonard Woolf

Woolf’s marmoset often sat on the author’s shoulder, “in a state of vicious fury”. Well, the Bloomsbury Group had a reputation for monkey business…