NOVEMBER BOOK OF THE MONTH | Frankie recommends... Yap! A Short History of Small Dogs - Stephanie Howard-Smith

Frankie says... I finished my own thesis so naturally I’m desperate to read somebody else’s!! Howard-Smith turned her exceptional PhD thesis into this fabulous trade non-fiction about the culture and history of lapdogs! A genuinely interesting history book, with plenty of wit and some razor sharp observations and as a proud owner of 2 dachshunds, I AM A PROUD SMALL DOG LOVER!

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Almost from humanity's very beginning, beloved small dogs have been trotting devotedly by our sides. Yap! follows in the pawprints of the breeds we have grown to love and cherish, from the small dogs touchingly memorialised in Ancient Rome through to Paris Hilton's chihuahua and the pet influencers of 21st-century, via the pug who colonised Napoleon's marital bed, King Charles II's spaniels and celebrity terriers in Victorian pubs. Drawing on her own experience as a pug-owner, pet historian Stephanie Howard-Smith reveals how small dogs have shaped our lives as much as we have theirs, challenging social dynamics, changing the way we spend our leisure time, contributing to a global industry now worth over £250 billion, and offering valuable companionship and a chance for self-expression.

A must-read for any lover of small dogs, Yap! is a paean to the unbreakable bond between humans and their petite pets.