How to Attract the Wombat

Will Cuppy was one of the great humourists and remains too little known. This is one of his classic 'how to' books, examining curious creatures whose habits - and often whose mere existence - seem to have distubred him, as well as the more mundane creatures like the Frog, the Gnat and the Moa, which have no visible vices but whose virtues are truly awful. Roaming the length and breadth of the animal kingdom, Cuppy neatly classes his observations for easy reference: Problem Mammals, Pleasures of Pond Life, Birds Who Can't Sing and Know It. Included with fifty shorter pieces are longer mediatations like 'The Poet and the Nautilus,' 'Swan-Upping, Indeed!' and 'How to Swat a Fly,' which codifies the essentials of this simple activity in ten hilarious principles. All of this is accompanied by some charming illustrations. But (of course) the seat of honour is occupied by the Wombat, the nocturnal star of three essays. Whether sleeping in Rossetti's silver epergne or tunnelling under the lawn, the Wombat never fails to fascinate Cuppy, clearly supplying him an alter ego from the animal kingdom.