Laurel for Libby: A Facsimile Edition of a Small Story Book Written for Graham Greene by his Wife, Vivien

“She was born in the year of the second Great Exhibition and she was run over by a tradesman’s bicycle in 1934—a long life for a cat. There were all sorts of mysteries about her. . . .” So begins Laurel for Libby, a beguiling previously unpublished story by Vivien Greene, the wife of acclaimed author Graham Greene.

First presented by Vivien to her husband as a tenth-anniversary gift, the original text is reproduced here for the first time in her own legible hand, accompanied by her own charming drawings as well. This little book chronicles the many adventures of Libby, the oldest cat in Bristol, who lived with the same family all her life through four major wars, the Peace of Berlin, and the Treaty of Versailles. Given different names by a succession of cooks and family owners over the years, she never had kittens, and thus a question mark always hung over her sex. Greene follows this mysterious feline and her many exploits over seven decades of British life, offering a whimsical and ultimately timeless story that is sure to delight cat lovers of all ages on both sides of the Atlantic.