You may have seen Gemma Correll’s illustrations of communicating creatures and animal advice adorned upon mugs, greeting cards and tote bags. A woman of quirky wit, her insightful understanding into exactly what those four-legged fur-balls are thinking resonates strongly for those with pets. A Pug’s Guide to Etiquette is Correll’s second offering to the cartoon animal literary realm.
Correll describes the pug as “not much bigger than a cat, yet exhibiting the sturdy rotundness of an unusually excitable warthog”. She explains how pugs are the mavericks of the canine world, playing by their own intricate and often confusing rules. So how could a pug’s human possibly attain understanding of his or her pug? This is where A Pug’s Guide to Etiquette helpfully steps in.
This manual stunningly illuminates the social conduct of the civilised pug. As well as accurately capturing the essence of pug thoughts, Correll also demonstrates a full range of facial expressions in pug-form, from slack-jawed confusion to intemperate delight.
The most endearing quality of the illustrated pug in A Pug’s Guide to Etiquette is the slightly nervous expression it holds for most of the book. The splendour of A Pug’s Guide to Etiquette lies in its almost beauty pageant-like manner in delivering a short but sweet guide to pug behaviour. A Pug’s Guide to Etiquette is available in all good bookshops from 14th February, just in time to make the perfect Valentines gift for the pug lover in your life.