Hodge the Cat Presents Stories of Cats - A Day of Talks About...Cats!

Join us for a purr-fect day filled with fascinating stories and insights into the mysterious world of our feline friends. Hodge the Cat, the renowned feline storyteller, invites you to an event like no other.

On Saturday, 22 February 2025 we will gather at the beautiful Southwark Cathedral in London, home of Hodge the Cathedral cat. This iconic venue will provide the purr-fect setting for a day dedicated to celebrating our beloved cats.

Hosted by dog-collar wearing cat mad clergyman Revd David Guest, ticket-holders will throughout the day, have the chance to hear captivating tales about cats, their adventures, and their unique personalities. Renowned cat experts, storytellers, and enthusiasts will take the stage to share their experiences and knowledge.

Whether you are a cat lover, an aspiring cat owner, or simply curious about the world of cats, this event is for you. Don't miss out on this meow-nificent opportunity to immerse yourself in the enchanting world of cats.

Join us wearing your best cat themed jumper. Hodge and Rev David Guest, no stranger to a decent cat jumper himself will choose their favourite and you could win a fur-tastic bundle of Hodge themed goodies!

This event will take place in the CAThedral and doors will open at 9.30am.

This event is in-person only and won't be streamed or recorded.

Our speakers so far...

Catland: Feline Enchantment and the Making of the Modern World with Kathryn Hughes

Some called it a craze. To others it was a cult. Join prize-winning historian Kathryn Hughes to discover how Britain fell in love with cats and ushered in a new era.

‘He invented a whole cat world’ declared H. G. Wells of Louis Wain, the Edwardian artist whose anthropomorphic kittens made him a household name. His drawings were irresistible but Catland was more than the creation of one eccentric imagination. It was an attitude – a way of being in society while discreetly refusing to follow its rules.

As cat capitalism boomed in the spectacular Edwardian age, prized animals changed hands for hundreds of pounds and a new industry sprung up to cater for their every need. Cats were no longer basement-dwelling pest-controllers, but stylish cultural subversives, more likely to flaunt a magnificent ruff and a pedigree from Persia. Wherever you found old conventions breaking down, there was a cat at the centre of the storm.

Whether they were flying aeroplanes, sipping champagne or arguing about politics, Wain’s feline cast offered a sly take on the restless and risky culture of the post-Victorian world. No-one experienced these uncertainties more acutely than Wain himself, confined to a mental asylum while creating his most iconic work. Catland is a fascinating and fabulous unravelling of our obsession with cats, and the man dedicated to chronicling them.

Kathryn Hughes is the prize-winning author of four previous books on Victorian social history, including a biography of Mrs Beeton which was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize and adapted for the BBC. She regularly writers for the Guardian, the New York Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement. Kathryn is currently Professor Emerita at the University of East Anglia, and a Fellow of both the Royal Literary Society and the Royal Historical Society.

Cats in the Cathedral - Then, now and always!with Dr Kathleen Walker-Meikle

Hodge potters around Southwark Cathedral, master of all he surveys. Hodge is a descendant of a long line of ecclesiastical forebears, who have clambered over the choir stalls and tripped over the flagstones for centuries. Focusing on the Middle Ages, this lecture will covers cats (with a couple of clerical canines, parrots, and squirrels thrown in for good measure) who have rampaged from the lowliest church living to the very highest reaches of the curia. Find them running amok in monasteries and nunneries, pressing their paws on tiles and inky pages. Learn why you really can’t have a Last Supper or the Annunciation without one. Packed with magnificent illustrations drawn from medieval illuminated manuscripts, this talk promises to be both informative and very entertaining, a must for every animal enthusiast!

Dr Kathleen Walker-Meikle (PhD History, UCL) is a specialist in the history of animals and medicine in the medieval and early modern period, She is the author of several books, including Medieval Pets (Boydell & Brewer, 2021 paperback), Cats in Medieval Manuscripts (British Library Publications, 2019), Dogs in Medieval Manuscripts (British Library Publications, 2020), The Cat Book: Cats of Historical Distinction (Bloomsbury, 2015), The Dog Book: Dogs of Historical Distinction (Bloomsbury, 2014), The Horse Book: Horses of Historical Distinction (Bloomsbury, 2017). She works both at the Science Museum Group and the University of Basel.

Plus we are delighted to welcome the following pawsome charities and hoomans on the day...

Reverend David Guest

David trained as a newspaper journalist and worked in Portsmouth, Petersfield, and Chichester, where he was the chief Arts writer and deputy chief reporter. He has been a theatre reviewer in print and now online for over 40 years.

After the call to ordained ministry, David trained at Chichester and was ordained in the Chester diocese in 1992. He served in a parish on the Wirral and then just outside Chester, during which time he also worked on the BBC Radio Merseyside Sunday morning programme as a producer and presenter. He moved to the Isle of Man to become an associate vicar in two churches in Douglas.

In 2000, David moved back to the Chichester diocese to become diocesan communications officer, and also served in parishes in Hove before returning to his “home parish” of Southwick as assistant priest in addition to his communications job. In 2009 he became Vicar of All Saints, Heathfield, with St George’s, Broad Oak, then in 2016 moved to be Team Vicar of Christ Church, East Sheen. In 2020 David moved to the Diocese of Rochester to become Vicar of St Bartholomew’s, Otford.

Among his interests are Celtic spirituality, and he has a passion for the Arts. David is a member of Theatre Chaplaincy UK (formerly the Actors’ Church Union) and currently serves as Chaplain to the Garrick Theatre, London. Among mixed interests are crime fiction, cats (he has hosted several Stories of Cats days in Southwark Cathedral alongside the resident feline), genealogy, cult TV especially Doctor Who and Scandinavia.

David is now Rector of All Saints, Bearsden in Glasgow.

Catcuddles Cat Sanctuary

You can also meet the volunteers from Greenwich based cat charity The Catcuddles Sanctuary who will be selling cat related items, including homemade cat toys, to raise funds for all the wonderful work they do in rescuing and rehoming cats in London and the surrounding areas including our very own Hodge!

Find out more about Catcuddles at their website

Photograph of Hodge in the Cathedral (c) Bridget Davey.