Changes

I think it's fair to say that you're not even going to pick this book up unless you're a dog lover. If you've always yearned for a cat and shudder at the thought of early morning walks in the rain then this is definitely no the book for you. But - if you know, or are known by a dog then it's the equivalent of that massive hamper of chocolate delights to a chocoholic. Only a magazine like the ''New Yorker'' could raid its archives and produce such a massive compendium of humour, illustrations, essays, fiction, poems and cartoons about dogs, or have a cast of writers which could put many a bookshop to shame.

I've just opened the book at random. I don't normally read poetry, but I was intrigued by ''Your Face on the Dog's Neck'' by Anne Sexton, which spoke to me more on a second reading - and delighted by the cover picture from July 1967 (35 cents it was then...) where three society ladies yak at each other - and their three dogs do exactly the same. Overleaf there's an article about Leona Helmsley by Jeffrey Toobin - and it's called ''Rich Bitch''. It's one of the lengthier pieces in the book at about ten pages, but it's fascinating and informative. There are also a few excellent cartoons scattered through the text along with another ''New Yorker'' cover. That's all in the space of a genuinely random fourteen pages.

Add into the mix the fact that you're going to find some of your favourite authors here. James Thurber wrote brilliantly about dogs: he understood the dog mind and there are four pieces by him as well as an article on Thurber's dogs by Adam Gopnik. There's Ogden Nash, E B White, Arthur Miller, Roald Dahl, Roddy Doyle and ... well, if I go on it's going to seem like a telephone directory without the numbers. This book is ''quality'' and ''quantity'' - and highly recommended.

{{amazontext|amazon=043402239X}}