Pyg

Blending the sophisticated satire of Jonathan Swift with the charming exuberance of a Pixar film, Pyg tells the story of Toby, a truly exceptional pig who lived in late eighteenth-century England. After winning the blue ribbon at the Salford Livestock Fair and escaping the butcher's knife, Toby tours the country, wowing circus audiences with his abilities to count, spell, and even read the minds of ladies (but only with their permission, of course). He goes on to study at Oxford and Edinburgh—encountering such luminaries as Samuel Johnson, Robert Burns, and William Blake—before finally writing his own life story. Quirky, beguiling, and endlessly entertaining, this memoir of a "remarkable sapient pig" is a sharp and witty delight.

Praise for Toby, the learned pig:

"A far greater object of admiration to the English nation than ever Sir Isaac Newton was."
-Robert Southey

Praise for Russell Potter's Pyg:

" A delicious book. A reminder of the risks, the drama and the quite extraordinary comedy of being born with a snout, four hooves and a corkscrew tail."
-Marie Darrieussecq, author of Pig Tales