The Fire Cats of London
This is a tale of the Great Fire of London retold from the point of view of a captured wild cat, Asta.
Although fantastical, this is a story with real bite, dealing with animal cruelty, xenophobia, and ecological destruction, as well as historical events. Asta, and later her missing brother, Ash, find themselves taken captive by the very hunters who have killed their mother for a bounty. But they are kept alive, to be sold to menagerie-keepers who plan to use them, along with bears, dogs and badgers, as part of their animal baiting shows. Baiting, which now seems to us unimaginably cruel, was once a popular spectator sport in early modern England, and the author sets out to show us both how cruel it was, and how the brave and resourceful animals decide to fight back. Helped by sympathetic humans and other animals—a raven and a monkey who assure them that some people can be trusted—they succeed in freeing themselves and escaping the flames of the Great Fire created deliberately by one of the villains of the book, the evil apothecary, Rathder.
Full of incident and excitement, this is an entertaining read that pulls no punches and indeed insists on the ferocious bravery of the wild cat, Asta. Although distressing scenes are recounted at second hand, younger readers (or listeners) may find some details upsetting. However, the great achievement of the book is in its realisation of the characters as true to their animal natures, despite their ability to talk and reason like humans. When Asta is introduced to the menagerie, ‘the scent of many different animals rushed up [her] nose’; when Asta and Ash are finally reunited she hugs him by ‘pressing her head against his’.
Recommended for confident readers of around 9 – 12 years.
