<img alt="varjak.jpg" src="http://www.strangeattractor.co.uk/further/archives/varjak.jpg" width="238" height="132" />

SF Said's <a href="http://www.varjakpaw.com" target=new">Varjak Paw</a> was the last book I can remember needing to read while navigating a crowded London street. I'd reached the final chapter just as it was time to leave the bus, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from finding out how things were going to end for the renegade Mesopotamian Blue and his friends.

Luckily I was reading the right book. Using one of the mystical martial arts techniques taught to  Varjak in his dreams, I gracefully avoided certain doom in the oncoming traffic and spared myself the tetchy tutts of lunch hour sandwich seekers, arriving at my meeting with only one thought in my mind: when is the next Varjak Paw book coming out?

Well, the wait is over!
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An email from SF has announced the arrival in paperback of <em>The Outlaw Varjak Paw</em>, in which our favourite street fighting cat is caught up in a brutal gang war, ultimately having to confront the City's most feared creature of the night, the phantom Sally Bones. Once again Varjak must turn inside himself for the skills he needs to survive, plunging deeper into the teachings of The Way to prepare for the final showdown.

SF's cat tales leap off the page with feline grace and energy and are perfectly complimented by Dave McKean's striking illustrations. Although aimed at older kids, there's nothing childish about these literate and compelling books, which are sure to captivate anybody who's ever exchanged passing hellos with an unfamiliar moggy.
MARK PILKINGTON

The Outlaw Varjak Paw is out now in Corgi paperbacks.