Childless cat lady
Crazy cat lady
Lonely cat lady
Weird cat lady

The descriptor changes, but two component parts remain happily coupled: cat + lady.

What is it about women and cats? Historically, both have occupied an uncertain status: are they feral or domestic? Malevolent or harmless? Deceptive or trustworthy? With a claw-like swipe of the pen, Reiches toys with the facts and fictions that comprise the cat lady stereotype – from witches with their familiars, to Selina Kyle and her alter ego Catwoman, to Taylor Swift and her Ragdolls – and ponders why cats and their owners inspire such suspicion where their canine equivalents do not.

It’s time to set the cat among the pigeons and find out exactly what it is about the shared company of felines and women that, throughout history, has got people’s claws out and fur bristling . . .

What, after all, is so dangerous about not answering when you’re called?