The Cat Who Came In From The Cold

In 1990, with a bestselling book behind him, and spurred on by a marriage to the writer Aileen Armitage, Deric Longden took one of the most momentous decisions of his life and moved to a foreign country. Huddersfield, in Yorkshire, with its distinctive manners and customs and its wealth of remarkable characters, would surely provide him with all the material he needed for the book he was planning, one of the all-time classic of travel literature. But two years later, when he sat down to write it, somehow the major events of everyday life kept intruding: the demands of a houseful of cats, the need to get a gas cooker repaired, the problem of opening a milk carton, the memories stirred to a life by sorting through old clothes in the wardrobe.
Still, ‘I’m a Stranger Here Myself’ is a travel book of a kind, one in which there is no telling where the wandering mind might get to next, where the most hilarious adventures can happen between the kitchen and the bathroom, and where a morning’s shopping can provide enough anecdotes to last a lifetime. Once again Deric Longden demonstrates his genius for taking the most ordinary materials of life and transforming them with inspired but gentle humour.

Throughout the 1990s, Deric Longden has shared his life with Aileen Armitage and four cats: Thermal, Tigger, Frink and shabby old Arthur. And the cats have found that sharing a life with Aileen can be a very painful business. She hardly ever trips over them these days, but they are always in danger of being mistaken for a cardigan, or being inadvertently locked away in the cellar.
Ever since thermal came in from the cold to enter his life, Deric has seen his world increasingly taken over by cats. What with planning their menus, entertaining their friends, listening to their worries and observing their adventures, he has little time left over for his professional life as a writer. But there are rich rewards. What with Arthur’s love affair with a wire brush and Tigger’s dramatic encounter with a washing-machine, there’s enough going on in the Longden household to give Colette and Richard Haggard nightmares.
In one way or another, the cats that Deric and Aileen share their lives with are an endless source of interest, laughter- and sadness too. For Deric has come to learn, the creature that rejoices the heart can also make it ache.
Few writers can have found so much enjoyment in the company of cats, and none has written better about their charm, and the fascinating range of their personalities. ‘Enough to Make a Cat Laugh’ will enchant cat-lovers everywhere and give Longden-lovers an unforgettable treat.

50 amusing short stories for cat lovers by Emmy and BAFTA-winning author Deric Longden. Broadcaster and speaker, he has written many widely-acclaimed books The Cat Who Came in From the Cold, I’m a Stranger Here Myself, Enough to Make a Cat Laugh, A Play On Words and Paws In the Proceedings. Each demonstrate his unique blend of humour, observation and his fun and adventures with his various adoptive cats. Tailpieces is a special personal collection of his favourite short stories and articles on cats.

Diana’s Story, published in 1989, some years after his wife Diana's death, was a bestseller. The book hit the Sunday Times best seller list straight away and won the NCR book award. It was followed by Lost for Words. They were adapted for television, the first under the title Wide-Eyed and Legless, and an adaptation of Lost for Words. Both were nominated for multiple BAFTAs and Lost For Words, screened in January 1999 and repeated in 2012 after the death of Pete Postlethwaite, attracted an audience of more than 12 million viewers and won the Emmy for best foreign drama and a BAFTA for Thora Hird as best actress.

Merry Christmas, everyone! "Bah!" said Scrooge. "Humbug!" With those famous words unfolds a tale that renews the joy and caring that are Christmas. Whether we read it aloud with our family and friends or open the pages on a chill winter evening to savor the story in solitude, Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol is a very special holiday experience. It is the one book that every year will warm our hearts with favorite memories of Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit, and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future — and will remind us with laughter and tears that the true Christmas spirit comes from giving with love.With a heartwarming account of Dickens’s first reading of the Carol, and a biographical sketch.