Everyone who's read Pratchett books will have done it at some stage or other, and that is to turn to one of the first few pages of any of the books and consult the list entitled "Books by Terry Pratchett" with the express intention of going through them to see if they've got them all. "The Unadulterated Cat" is up there on the list but very few people have actually read it, even fewer have actually seen a copy of it.

As it has been reprinted this year, I got a friend in Sheffield to mail it to me (see? Can't get it in Grimsby!) so that I could have a quick read. I didn't know what to expect but I was quite sure it wouldn't be anything like a Discworld novel...

Correct. TAC is one of those novelty books that people buy when they are stuck for a present. "Aaah" thinks they, "Wossname's got a cat, we'll buy her this!". It's that sort of book, a funny opinion of a book, you know the sort.

It goes on about "Real" cats - Real cats don't do this, real cats do that, and while the thing gets a wee bit dull after a while, there are some right gems `twixt the covers, such as the one about the veg- etarian cat, or the cat that mugged another cat on a regular basis.

True, very true, Deck the Ripper will tell you all about the time he found a webbed foot in the kitchen...

And as for the games that cats play, well...

This isn't a bad book, no no, it's quite good, but you're not going to enjoy it if you buy it expecting it to be as good as the Discworld stuff, or the Nomes trilogy. This is a different book entirely, and is more suited to cat lovers than Pratchett fans, unless, of course, they just want to complete their set.

It's an okay book, it is average, in a nice competant way, and would make a good gift for the aforementioned cat lover, but it a bit of a let-down if you're execting a riotous laughing session.

Dick