Curious Cats and Fantastical Felines: The Cat in Folklore, Myth, and Legend

by Willow Winsham

Genres: Nonfiction, Cats, Folklore, Mythology, History

192 pages, Hardcover

Published April 7, 2026

About the author

Willow Winsham brings readers regular tales of witches and witchcraft at her blog, The Witch, the Weird and the Wonderful. Combining a passion for research and history with a love of storytelling, she dedicates her time to investigating some of the most intriguing stories from the history of the British Isles.

Reviews

[Tash]

This is a cute, easy-to-read book that describes worldwide superstitions, sayings, fairy tales, mythology and folk tales related to cats. For example, tales about why the Manx Cat has no tail and origins of sayings such as “it’s raining cats and dogs”. The facts are interesting and are accompanied by many gorgeous illustrations. However, the descriptions are brief and simple, and don’t really provide any deep analysis. I also didn’t love how the book was organised. It felt a little fragmented and incohesive with regard to topics. But overall, this is a fun, quick read for cat lovers.

[Vicky]

This gave the history of cats throughout history, looking at superstitions and beliefs from around the world. It was interesting and I liked the stories included. At some points it was a bit dry - it felt like someone had written bullet points about beliefs in different countries/cultures then just taken out the bullet points. That lost me a bit. But overall an interesting read.

[Melinda Wingate]

I love cats. So of course I had to read this. I really enjoyed it, too! This book is like a collection of different types of information about cats in folklore, myth, and legend. There are some illustrations as well, which are all gorgeous! If you like cats, folklore, and random information, then this book is for you.

[Alex T.]

A fun non-fic about cats in folklore, myths and legends. Not the most in-depth book I ever read on the topic, but it does touch on a lot of topics. Educative and mostly light-hearted, recommended for any cat lover.

[Destiny Cejka]

I wanted to like this but found myself skimming alot and quite bored. I love a good folk tale and myth but these read more like a textbook than an actual story. Some of the facts were really interesting and the illustrations were super cool but this wasn't for me.