Rice, Jo (1982). The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits (1sted.). Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. p.133. ISBN 0-85112-250-7.

However once you start digging in to it you see so many more connections. Now ironically the copy I stumbled across was connected to the stage show however for me it were the cats which caught my attention. Further named cats include Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer, full of destruction and mischief, Old Deuteronomy, the GREAT RUMPUSCAT, who defuses a dog fight, Mr. Mistoffelees, Macavity, the Mystery Cat,Asparagus, Bustopher Jones, the man about town, and Skimbleshanks, the railway cat. With the possible exception of (Aspara)gus, these names appear to be particular rather than given names of the creatures. urn:oclc:861379846 Scandate 20100430182846 Scanner scribe9.sanfrancisco.archive.org Scanningcenter sanfrancisco Worldcat (source edition) In 1954, English composer Alan Rawsthorne set six of the poems in a work for speaker and orchestra entitled Practical Cats, which was recorded soon afterwards, with the actor Robert Donat as the speaker. At about the same time another English composer, Humphrey Searle, composed another narrated piece based on the poems, using flute, piccolo, cello and guitar. This work, Two Practical Cats, consists of settings of the poems about Macavity and Growltiger.I'm curious what motivated Eliot to write these funny and clever little ditties for kitties--the writer feels more like Edward Lear than the elusive, erudite author of "The Hollow Men" and "Journey of the Magi"--but there's a perfect sort of precision to the meter and language, even if the subject is playful and quaint to the point of silliness. Or maybe that's just the loutish dog lover in me coming out; as Eliot writes, "The usual Dog about the Town / Is much inclined to play the clown, / And far from showing too much pride / Is frequently undignified." I’m not sure the CGI is entirely convincing, as these cat-human hybrids seem much more of the latter than the former (the meowing is definitely unconvincing; Dame Judi Dench throwing a ham bone made me guffaw out loud). Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939) is a collection of whimsical light poems by T. S. Eliot about feline psychology and sociology, published by Faber and Faber. It serves as the basis for Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1981 musical Cats.

The Ad-dressing of Cats - '...You now have learned enough to see That cats are much like you and me ...'In 1942, John Wilson at John & Edward Bumpus Bookshop sent Eliot a bomb-damaged copy of the book which had narrowly missed being completely flattened by a five hundred pound bomb which fell through the shop during the Blitz. Eliot sent the book on to his brother in America who he thought would “be suitably impressed and exhibit the copy.” Long before Andrew Lloyd Webber's fabled musical, I read Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats to my sons and to one of them just after he was born, though I suspect the readings have had no lasting impact on children so very young. These feline tales by Mr. Eliot stand as an interesting counterpoint to The Wasteland and Eliot's more serious musings and they have a kind of enduring charm for me, though they may seem rather dated & even unfunny to many others. Okay, I'm not the biggest fan of poems. However, you tell me there is a poem collection just about cats? Sign me up please! You can also still join BIPC events and webinars and access one-to-one support. See what's available at the British Library in St Pancras or online and in person via BIPCs in libraries across London.