The Hamish Hamilton Book of Wise Animals

the long version

'The pleasure of living with animals comes to a great extent from watching how they make their needs and wishes known without using words. Once you begin to know the language, it is easy to see the wisdom and motives behind the animals' behaviour, and it is a short step from that to making up stories that fit in with their character and giving them human words to express themselves with.' So writes Eilís Dillon in her introduction to this fascinating collection, and she has drawn together stories from richly varied authors to prove her point. And very entertainingly she has done it too. There is E. Nesbit's *Psammead*, T. S. Eliot's *Mr Mistoffelees, Rollicum Bitem the Fox* by John Masefield, *Kpo the Leopard* by Rene Guillot and Edgar Allan Poe's spine-chilling poem *The Raven*, among a host of others, whose animal heroes endued with human, and sometimes super-human intelligence, enliven this intriguing collection.