The turnspit dog - Pamela Gillilan

In kitchens of two centuries ago a little dog was often used to work a treadwheel which turned a spit-roast in the hearth. Pamela Gillilan describes a 'ratty creature, rough of furhis treadmill paws unresting during roasting hours'. This lively collection of her poems - with woodcuts by Charlotte Cory - portrays creatures from cats and dogs to sh and dodos, many of them much the worse for mankind's demands on them. If animals could read books, they'd buy this one in their droves, for it shows people in none too good a light: not only cut off from the natural world, but sometimes from each other too.