The Cat Who Came in from the Cold [Paperback]

Deric Longden (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0552138223 | ISBN-13: 978-0552138222 | Publication Date: January 2000

The little cat Deric Longden saw sitting forlornly on an upturned bucket belonged to the neighbours, but somehow when it began to rain it seemed only natural to bring him inside. Once there, he slipped so easily into Deric and Aileen's lives that there was an unspoken agreement that he had found his real home. Little did he know that he had entered the Longden world, in which the unexpected (almost) always happens...Aileen being Aileen, it was probably inevitable that sooner or later the kitten would be trapped in the refrigerator. And Deric being Deric, the obvious way to thaw him back to life was to make a little coat for him out of a shrunken thermal vest. Thus the cat who came in from the cold got his name - Thermal - and joined the wonderful cast of characters in the ongoing Longden saga.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Longden was never a cat-lover, but a rain-soaked white kitten in his neighbor's yard changed all that. He and his wife, English novelist Aileen Armitage, adopted the stray and named him Thermal after he nearly froze in their refrigerator. In this heartwarming, genial account, which is flecked with puckish humor and endearingly illustrated with line drawings, the British radio broadcaster recounts the misadventures of a high-energy cat who eats peanut butter, cavorts with dachshunds, shreds envelopes while sitting in a wastebasket and stays away from home for a full month. Longden's cheerfully busy household expands when a second adoptee, Tigger, turns the cellar into a halfway house for roving neighborhood cats. As Thermal changes from an ankle-rubbing sycophant to a toilet-roll-spinning terror, it's touching to watch Longden's affection for and understanding of his furry soulmate continually deepen.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

A middle-aged man with a crusty personality who never thought of himself as a cat lover finds himself won over by a stray white kitten. Sound familiar? Like Cleveland Amory in The Cat Who Came for Christmas ( LJ 10/1/87), Longden relates how he rescued a kitten, Thermal, from the cold rain, describing all the joys and trials of raising a kitten. Although Thermal's imaginary conversations and observations with Longden are quite engaging, the British setting and dialog are not as charming as James Herriott's animal stories, and the narrative is not as amusing as Amory's. This is recommended only for libraries whose patrons demand another man-meets-cat book. See also William S. Burroughs's The Cat Inside and Dee Ready's A Cat's Life: Dulcy's Story , reviewed above.--Ed.
- Eva Lautemann, DeKalb Coll. Lib., Clarkston, Ga.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Transworld Publishers (January 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0552138223
• ISBN-13: 978-0552138222
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 3.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,366,367 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The perfect balance of comedy & tragedy..., February 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cat Who Came in From the Cold (Cat Who... (Audio)) (Audio Cassette)

Having read Deric Longden's first five books (the others include Diana's Story, Lost For Words, I'm a Stranger Here Myself & Enough to Make a Cat Laugh), I can confidentally say that this is when the author is at his best. He delivers enough comedy (something to be expanded upon in subsequent books), but mixed with a subtle version of his own blend of tragedy (already established in previous books). Whilst many thought that his characterization of his mother's mental decline in Lost For Words was distasteful, I would think that even the harshest of critics would fail not to find the story of a lost kitten a least a little endearing.

Although it may be easy enough to dismiss this as simply a children's novel, I would say that, given enough suspension of disbelief & a little imagination, this can be a thoroughly enjoying read, and (cliche) a book that you will want to keep coming back to, time & again, even if only for some of the amusing anecdottes presented by Thermal.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Book, October 12, 2004

By 

MomFood (Oak Ridge, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cat Who Came in From the Cold (Cat Who... (Audio)) (Audio Cassette)

I first picked up the audio version of "The Cat Who Came in From the Cold" from our library while preparing for a marathon car trip with my husband (not a man who thinks highly of cats) and sons (ages 23, 20 and 14). I was pretty skeptical that the male majority would really 'let' me listen to a book with a cute little kitten on the cover, but I added it to my stack anyway (it's good to be Queen!). After having had my fill of "Tom Clancy" and his friends, I plugged in "The Cat Who Came in From the Cold" and soon ALL of us were all laughing the miles away. On our return leg of our trip, all these big guys (and their mom AND DAD) wanted to hear the "Thermal" tapes again (listening to a story a second time through is unheard of around here!) Along with most of Deric Longden's other books, we now own our own set of tapes to share with family, and the book version (which my 14 year old son, who hates to read, read cover to cover in about a day). Cheeky Thermal is an oft quoted cat around here. It is also nice to find a book that appeals to everyone in the family without any objectionable material. This is just great, light-hearted fare.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The cat-lovers' best of the best, May 25, 1998

By 

Kristena ([e-mail]) (Portland, OR, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cat Who Came in from the Cold (Hardcover)

American readers who enjoy authors such as Cleveland Armory are really deprived of the British author Derick Longden's classics. "The Cat Who Came In From the Cold" was the first of his books I read, but was able to read more only because I have a friend who orders them from the UK. Longden imparts personality and (imagined) dialogues and thoughts from his cats, which will have you chuckling and nodding in agreement with his knowledge of our feline favorites. GET HIS BOOKS!