Faces: Profiles of Dogs

In ‘Faces’, Vita Sackville-West traces the origins and history of 44 dog breeds, reflecting on their characteristics with frank humour, from the silky gentle-eyed Afghan, ‘like somebody’s elderly Aunt Lavinia, who nourishes a secret passion for the Vicar’, to the Labrador Retriever, ‘dear, solid, faithful lump of a dog!’, and that ‘docile minion’ the Corgi. 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’.