These essays are sometimes toothy, sometimes bloody, and sometimes gentle: much like our four-legged furry friends. Whilst a reader picking up a book about dogs might expect the contents of the book to be about dog, the authors and essayists of this book seem too self-absorbed to think of their readership’s expectations.

The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. I assume most people who want to read this book are dog lovers and while I didn’t love every story, I could appreciate the insights shared. Ned's one still weirds me the hell out, I'd bought this as a gift for someone (that I later borrowed to read) and his was the story I flicked to once they book arrived, very quickly making me wonder what the hell I had just purchased. Reading this made my simultaneously miss my childhood dogs and yearn for a new furry friend who will enrich my life.All of dog life is here, and this charming book shows how much poorer our own lives would be without them. The essays showcase a wide variety of dog personalities, and what we might learn from them about aging and death, relationships, domesticity and wildness, and care. While I get why, it would’ve been nice to have at least one piece that looked at a dog as it is, on its own terms, as a creature that is not just a reflection of its human. It goes beyond the damp noses and wagging tails and gets to the heart of what makes dogs our true lifelong companions. This anthology promises to bring - much as our four-legged furry friends do - joy and delight, and surprising depth and poignancy.

This was a charming collection of essays portraying an extremely diverse cast of dogs that were both charming and confusing in equal measure. For me a real highlight was Child-Friendly by Ned Beauman, in which Beauman spends the entirety of the essay trying to convince the reader that he is not a paedophile, despite his adorable little dog's tendency to attract pre-teen girls. this book made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me feel nostalgic and most of all it made me grateful that I still have my little odi by my side (although I’m sure we’re getting to the end of our little story now too- she’s thirteen years old). yes, i’ve read all four of them) probably because they were mostly personal, with only one being more scholarly.

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However, for the most part I picked this book up every night for the past week or so and read one/ two stories at a time. This anthology promises to bring – much as our four-legged furry friends do – joy and delight, and surprising depth and poignancy. Instead, the collection of authors use dogs as a vehicle to just talk about their own issues and absolutely overshare personal circumstances. Facebook sets this cookie to show relevant advertisements to users by tracking user behaviour across the web, on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin.Hotjar sets this cookie to know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by the site's daily session limit. such is the agony of dog ownership: the way our timers draw down in asynchrony” and “I’ll miss these dogs until I die. I am always drawn to books with dogs on the cover but most of the time I put them back on the shelf (I’m sensitive and self-aware). I needed a set of easily digestible, well written, and comforting essays about the best thing in the world… dogs.

Perhaps this intimacy and vulnerability is encouraged by the simple and honest love that most have for their canine companions, unlike the complexity of human-to-human relationships. There were some I really didn't get along with - Ned Beauman's being the worst as he seems to think because he's a tall man with a little dog in a park people would presume he's a paedophile and it was such an odd take that he was so consistent with in his story, it was really off-putting. It goes beyond the wet snouts and wagging tails and gets to the heart of what makes dogs our true lifelong companions. The essays are relatable and balanced sharing positive and negative situations stretching from puppy-hood to senior-hood. All in all it was alright, I just wish there was some more elevated prose essays, even just to change the pace up, instead of very simple, article like writing with little individuality or self expression on the author's part.

Payments made using National Book Tokens are processed by National Book Tokens Ltd, and you can read their Terms and Conditions here. Publication dates are subject to change (although this is an extremely uncommon occurrence overall). For this collection, the central topic of our pooch pals could not have been more apt for me given that I have recently been initiated into the cult of canine companionship for the very first time! For more details, please consult the latest information provided by Royal Mail's International Incident Bulletin. She has a PhD in Environmental History and Aesthetics and is the founding editor of The Willowherb Review.