Larry the Chief Mouser: And Other Official Cats

by Christopher Day (Author), Christopher Day (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2016

  $4.10

  For 200 years the UK government has used cats to rid their buildings of mice. For a long time the animals remained unofficial, but then in the 1930s government departments started to apply to the treasury for a feline upkeep allowance. The cats thus became `official' members of government and, as it turned out, well loved.
  
  There are many funny stories linked to these cats: Home Office cat `Peter the Great' became a celebrity in 1958 when the public issued concerns that he wasn't being paid enough; Peter's successor, unusually a female Manx cat, was considered to have a `diplomatic background' and thus gained a pay rise! More recent cats include Chief Mouser Larry, who appeared at David Cameron's resignation speech, and the Foreign Office cat Palmerston, who has a substantial Twitter following.
  
  Including letters and memos held by The National Archives, plus photographs of the cats themselves, this book takes a fresh approach to what goes on at Whitehall.