‘How very odd it must be to be a dog…’

Over the years Vita Sackville-West had many dogs, including Cocker Spaniel Pippin (famously the mother of Virginia Woolf’s Spaniel, Pinka), Alsatian Rollo, whose photograph hangs in Sissinghurst Castle, and elkhound Canute, who used to hop on the bus into town whenever he got bored.

In Faces, Sackville-West traces the origins and history of forty-four breeds, reflecting on their characteristics with frank humour,from the Father Christmas-moustachioed Schnauzer to the silky gentle-eyed Afghan, ‘like somebody’s elderly Aunt Lavinia, who nourishes a secret passion for the Vicar’, and the elegant and ancient Saluki, ‘without a doubt the dullest dog I ever owned’.

Charming and fascinating in equal measure, this collection of profiles is testament to the fact that, ‘when one loves dogs, it is difficult not to attribute human qualities to them’.