THEY'RE all here. All the feline crew with their contrariness – the Rum Tum Tugger who “when you let him in then he wants to be out”; their artfulness – Mr Mistoffelees, who can play tricks with fish paste; their greediness – plump Bustopher Jones the cat about town who dines out; and their shadiness – master criminal Macavity, outwardly respectable but who stifles pekes.

And of course they all have three different names (one known only to themselves).

Eliot’s wild, exuberant celebration of the anarchy of cats is wittily and mischievously enhanced (and made more accessible to children) by the Gruffalo illustrator.