Overview

What do the longest-serving Canadian Prime Minister and a ketamine-injecting psychonaut have in common? What would a poltergeist mongoose say if you spoke to him on a Ouija board? Would talking spiders be more believable if they had lips? These are some of the important questions Luke Thompson seeks to answer in this exploration of human-animal conversation. Spanning the ancient and modern, the scientific and the strange, Thompson's journey takes him from the stories of King Solomon and Doctor Dolittle to medieval dragon-slayers and extraterrestrial aliens, via Harvard laboratories, pet psychics, and the discipline of anthrozoology. Always eccentric and always fascinating, Domadomadoma-Blumblumblum sees Thompson navigate these peculiar landscapes - whether lowering himself into a flotation tank or training as a pet psychic - with many questions on his mind: What exactly do we want from conversations with our fellow animals? What portrait of the world do we paint when we envisage these communications? And how far are we willing to go to realise this dream?

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9781738466719

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Reviews

An utter delight of a book - exuberant, witty and beautifully written. I look forward to discussing it with my cat. Wyl Menmuir, Booker Prize-listed author of The Many A wry, intimate magpie of a narrator gathering eclectic histories, Thompson is a beguiling guide in a world enriched with the possibility of communicating with other species. Jen Hadfield, winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize Thompson's book is playful, provocative, at times surreal, at other times heartbreaking. He is a unique and compelling guide. Melanie Challenger, Vice President of the RSPCA and author of How to Be Animal Sparkling, clever, kind, playful and profound: an urgently important meditation on the accessibility of other minds and worlds. Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast and Cry of the Wild

An utter delight of a book - exuberant, witty and beautifully written. I look forward to discussing it with my cat. WYL MENMUIR, BOOKER PRIZE- LISTED AUTHOR OF THE MANY; A wry, intimate magpie of a narrator gathering eclectic histories, Thompson is a beguiling guide in a world enriched with the possibility of communicating with other species. JEN HADFIELD, WINNER OF THE T.S. ELIOT PRIZE; Thompson's book is playful, provocative, at times surreal, at other times heartbreaking. He is a unique and compelling guide. MELANIE CHALLENGER, AUTHOR OF HOW TO BE ANIMAL. Sparkling, clever, kind, playful and profound: an urgently important meditation on the accessibility of other minds and worlds. CHARLES FOSTER, AUTHOR OF BEING A BEAST AND CRY OF THE WILD.

Author Information

Luke is a writer and publisher from Cornwall. His books include the poetry collection Singing About Melon (Shearsman, 2020), the long essay Rhinoceros (Broken Sleep, 2020) and A Guillemot Guide to Very Small Press Publishing (Guillemot Press, 2022). He has edited several books on Cornwall and Cornish writers, including Treasures of Cornwall (Macmillan, 2023) and Selected Poetry of Jack Clemo (Enitharmon 2015). As well as books, Luke has produced text-generating poetry games, including a Phonetic Ouija Board and Psychic Test Cards.

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