Oliver Soden "Jeoffry: The Poet’s Cat"

Biographers in Conversation · May 14, 2025 · 57m

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, the distinguished British biographer Oliver Soden chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about his choices while crafting Jeoffry: The Poet’s Cat. Jeoffry was a real cat who lived in a London asylum with Christopher Smart, an 18th-century poet.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

How Virginia Woolf’s Flush: A Biography, the imaginative biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s cocker spaniel, influenced Oliver Soden’s choices while crafting The Poet’s Cat

How Oliver cleverly used Jeoffry as a lens through which to explore Christopher…