Larry the cat at Downing Street has seen off five Prime Ministers and is a national institution. But he comes from a long line of political animals both in Westminster and Washington.
Tracing the political (and not-so-political) tussles of the dogs, cats and even tarantulas on both sides of the Atlantic from the time of Cardinal Wolsey, political journalist and former special adviser Peter Cardwell tells never-before-heard tales from senior figures including Rishi Sunak, Sue Gray and David Camerons adviser who selected Larry from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, who breaks her silence about the times One Direction and President Obama met the moggy.
Peter Cardwell served as a special adviser in the UK government for three and a half years. He worked for four Cabinet ministers in four departments: the Northern Ireland Office; the Home Office; the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government; and the Ministry of Justice.
After being educated in Northern Ireland, he studied at St Hughs College, Oxford, before winning a Fulbright scholarship to the Columbia School of Journalism, New York.
He was a broadcast journalist for ten years, working for the BBC in London, Washington DC, New York and Belfast, as well as for Sky News, Channel 5 News, UTV and ITVs Good Morning Britain. He is a frequent political commentator for the UK and international broadcast and print media.
In his spare time, he volunteers as chairman of a trust for student journalists, mentors a teenager in the care system and spends time with his rescue cat, Jack. He lives in London and Richhill, County Armagh.
