Cat Kin [rev/expanded edn.]
(Sinclair-Stevenson 1994)  ISBN  1-85619-463-9 

Alexis Lykiard's wonderful collection is devoted entirely to cats. The poems are accomplished, delivered with Lykiard's acknowledged verve, and make a fine contribution to the love of the cat.

“A great little book. Cat Kin is such a soft, friendly title, it doesn’t quite prepare one for the seriousness of the writing – I hope reviewers do read it before writing!” [Peter Dent] 

“It ought to be a commercial as well as an aesthetic winner” [Vernon Scannell] 

“Lykiard succeeds surpassingly well… I find moving how Lykiard sees into human loneliness by studying the solitary nature of cats” [James Sale, Tears In The Fence] 
“Cat Kin is all about cats. The poems are sometimes touching and, in those dealing with the history of mankind’s involvement with felines, informative… A writer attempting something far too rarely undertaken by British poets: a thematically linked and coherent body of poems, of book length” [Shaun McCarthy, Outposts] 

“Contagiously cat-like in all its dexterous twists” [Ted Hughes]

Lykiard, true to his form, comes up with original, moving, witty and accurate new views of this enigmatic beast' [Martin Booth, Tribune]

'Alexis Lykiard has succeeded in giving us a company of closely-observed living cats, portrayed with affectionate fascination rather than sentimentality'         
[Patricia Beer]