Belvedere is a big Bukowski fan. He tells me that the ‘laureate of American lowlife’, Charles Bukowski (1920-1994), the mean, tough, hard-drinking, womanising poet and novelist owned by nine cats (what a very cat number) was a pussycat underneath his pulp fiction carapace. Well, he was a Leo. Bukowski thought everyone should be more cat.

‘If you’re feeling bad, you just look at the cats, you’ll feel better, because they know that everything is, just as it is. There’s nothing to get excited about. They just know. They’re saviours. The more cats you have, the longer you live.'

Cats stroll in and out of his novels, essays, short stories and in particular poems. Our favourite is ‘My Cats ‘. Here’s the bit that resonates with the thinking behind Clowder Press.

when I am feeling

low

all I have to do is

watch my cats

and my

courage

returns.

I study these

creatures.

they are my

teachers.

A collection of his writing, On Cats, was published posthumously in 2015. 

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The Bukowskian theory that cats have much to teach humans is dear to our hearts. 

Take a look at our Cat Rules and upcoming title Be More Cat.