Blog Tour | The Cat of Yule Cottage by Lili Hayward

Title | The Cat of Yule Cottage 

Author | Lili Hayward 

Publisher | Hodder 

Pages | 208 Pages 

Purchase | Amazon 

A magical tale of Christmas and cats, perfect for everyone who loves A Street Cat Named Bob and Alfie the Doorstep Cat.

It's nearly Christmas, and Jessamine Pike needs a serious life overhaul.

Jess moves into Enysyule, a centuries-old cottage in Cornwall, and begins the process of renovating the rundown house by day and finishing her novel by night, planning to have both finished in time for the holidays. She's got good company: a beautiful, arrogant tomcat stalks around like he owns the place, and seems very skeptical of Jess' tenancy.

But there's magic in the air... Local legends tell of a spirit that inhabits the area, and an ancient standing stone that keeps watch over the valley. As Christmas comes closer and closer, Jess uncovers treasures from Enysyule's past, and becomes involved in a fight for its future.

For Jess has stumbled into a story that's been going on for five hundred years. A story about land, love, friendship, the Yuletide... and one remarkable cat.

Guest Post 

Dear Reader,

Today I have something rather wonderful for you to kick off my December posts and festivities here at A Page of Fictional Love. I am rather fond of books, crochet and cats as many of you will know of my beautiful fur baby; Magick, which is why this post is so extra special for me today.

In celebration of the publication of; The Cat of Yule COttage (the title is simply so dreamy!), I am handing over my blog to author Lili Hayward for the day as she shares with you her rather fun post 'Cats vs. Dogs'. It brought smiles and giggles to my face as I read it, and I hope it does for you too. Enjoy! 

Cats vs. Dogs

Lili Hayward

Dogs are nice and all that. They have funny faces and are sometimes useful and good for long walks. But for me, there’s no contest. I am a fully paid up lifetime member of the Cat Club. Here are six reasons why(and a liberal smattering of YouTube links):

                                                         

1. Cats are keen on scientific education

They regularly offer free anatomy lessons to their owners; without them, how would you know what a mouse kidney looked like? They're strict on timetables as well, and will often commence your lessons first thing in the morning, by leaving a new exhibit (bird foot, decapitated mouse head) on the rug next to the bed.

2. They encourage philosophical thinking

And I’m not only talking about Schrödinger... Cats present daily paradoxes and conundrums to test their owners, such as: My Cat Refuses the Fancy Food Yet Feasts on Half a Dead Moth: Discuss. Or:The Only Water I Like to Drink is From the Toilet or Your Glass: true or true?

For extra feline philosophy see Derrida’s cat in his philosophical work: The Animal that Therefore I am.

3. They hold down important jobs

Yet still manage to do almost nothing at the same time. Take Tama, the calico cat who was made Super Station Master at Kishi Station in Kinokawa, Japan. Or Tuxedo Stan, who ran for mayor in Halifax, Canada or El Candigato Morris in Xalapa, Mexico, whose team pledged he would “rid the city of its corrupt political rats”, and argued that voting for him was less of a joke than the election itself.

4. Sometimes they even work for a living

Dogs aren’t the only ones who work. All over the world, cats occasionally deign to accept employment. Take the famous Tibs the Great, the Post Office’s Number One Cat, who kept the HQ free from mice for fourteen years. Or the many famous Ship Cats, like Able Seacat Simon and Mrs Chippy. And as for sniffer dogs, pah! At a police checkpoint in Stavropol, two Russian cats, Barsik and Rusik, could sniff out smuggled cargos of black-market sturgeon and caviar with astonishing accuracy, ousting the force’s sniffer dogs. They were so successful, that eventually, they sadly became victims of a Mafia hit.

5. They are celebrated in art

Forget “How Much is that Doggy in the Window”. Cats have been inspiring works of art for thousands of years. Take the 9th Century Old Irish poem “Pangur Bán”, written by a monk to his cat. "Pangur" translates as “fuller” (e.g. someone who pounded woolen cloth for a living: as anyone who owns a cat and has been subject to a vigorous kneading can testify, it's an apt name) and Bán, meaning “fair” or “white”. And then there's my personal favourite, Jeoffry the Cat, who kept poet Christopher Smart company when his family had him incarcerated in an asylum. Smart dedicated a whole section of his 1762 poem Jubilate Agno to Jeoffry: “For he is a mixture of gravity and waggery... For by stroking him I have discovered electricity”. From illuminated manuscripts to the magnificent Japanese Edo-era ukiyo-e woodblock prints, artists and cats go together like claws and the bottom of the sofa.

6. They Keep Writers Happy

Every writer needs a cat. Cats have carefully honed the art of focus training, and frequently test a writer’s determination to keep writing by time-honoured exercises, such as Walking Across the Keyboard, Sleeping on the Laptop, or Must Sit on the Lap Now. Sometimes, they'll encourage you to take a break and stretch your back and neck muscles by mewing loudly and persistently for food.

Writers are often odd creatures, who – speaking for myself –require bothhours of solitude and sudden bursts of human interaction. Who can better understand that than a cat? Alan Ginsberg, Joyce Carol Oates, Mark Twain, Patricia Highsmith, Tove Jansson, Ernest Hemingway, Neil Gaiman, Doris Lessing, Philip K. Dick, Edgar Allen Poe... Cat-lovers, all of them. Over and out.

“You belong to another time. You are lord

of a place bounded like a dream.”

—Jorge Luis Borges, “To a Cat”

Please consider making a donation to your local animal rescue centre (such as Cats Protection) this Christmas!