About this item
The animal-human connection has thrived throughout history. THE ANIMAL'S COMPANION is a fascinating exploration of our universal human need for the companionship of animals--dogs, cats, horses, birds, iguanas, and more.The earliest evidence of a human and a pet can be traced to as far as France 26,000 years ago, where a boy and his "canid" (dog) took a walk through a cave. Their foot and paw prints were preserved together on the muddy cave floor, and smoke from the torch the boy carried was left on the walls, allowing archaeologists to carbon-date their journey. And, so it is, from these pre-historic days all the way up to the present, that we humans have an innate and undeniable need to live in the close company of animals. In THE ANIMAL'S COMPANION, acclaimed social anthropologist and author of Red: A History of the Redhead, Jacky Colliss Harvey turns her keen eye for cultural investigation and her prodigious story-telling skills to the history of animals as our companions in every-day life and in adversity, the development of breeding, our need to accessorize our pets, animals in children's stories (from Black Beauty to Lassie) , our desire to mourn our pets and send them to the afterlife, and when, how, and why all of these attitudes have developed over time.
About the Author
Jacky Colliss Harvey was born in the wilds of Suffolk, and grew up surrounded by farms and animals. She studied English at Cambridge University and art history at the Courtauld Institute, and putting those two together, went on to a career in the museum world as a writer, editor and publisher. At the same time, her red hair also found her an alternative career as a life model and a film extra, playing everything from a society lady in 'Atonement' to a Parisian whore in 'Bel-Ami'. Her first book, 'Red: A History of the Redhead,' was a New York Times bestseller, and finally convinced her to write full-time. It was followed by a guided journal, 'My Life As A Redhead,' and in 2019 by 'The Animal's Companion' - an exploration of the 26,000 year love story between people and their pets. Her writing has been praised as 'quirky and deeply perceptive', and as 'witty...wide-ranging and throughly enjoyable.' She lives in London with two very spoiled rescue cats, while her partner lives in New York - so a good deal of her writing is done at 30,000 feet. Whatever her altitude, you can find her on Twitter @JCollissHarvey, and on Instagram as jackycollissharvey.
