Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats is a whimsical collection of light verse by Nobel Prize-winning poet T. S. Eliot. Originally written in the 1930s and first published in 1939 by Faber & Faber in the UK, these poems were penned by Eliot for his godchildren and other young friends. Departing from his more serious modernist works, Eliot adopts a playful, humorous tone to describe various eccentric feline characters, such as Rum Tum Tugger, Macavity, and Mr. Mistoffelees.
The poems are written in a lyrical, often musical style, packed with clever wordplay, rhythm, and charm. Though lighthearted, the collection showcases Eliot’s signature linguistic dexterity and vivid character creation. The cats are depicted as having complex inner lives and personalities, often resembling human archetypes or quirks.
The book gained renewed fame after composer Andrew Lloyd Webber adapted it into the internationally successful stage musical Cats (1981), which drew directly from Eliot’s poems.
