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A plague upon such barking. Henry IV Part I, reworked and set in the suburbs with dogs as the main protagonists? Brilliant concept but, like a Shakespearean hero, it’s innately flawed.Prince is a black Labrador owned by the Hunter family. Like all dogs, he is able to understand human language and is therefore party to their most intimate moments. So when the family starts to implode, his job is to save them by invoking the Labrador Pact and its (woof) dogma of “Duty Over All”, despite the temptations of the frivolous Springer Spaniel ethos of “Pleasure Over Duty”. Animal books tread a fine line between providing an oblique insight into human behaviour (Animal Farm) and being a little too cute for the grown-up palette (Watership Down). And, while Haig’s naive prose style sometimes evokes bunny rabbit cuteness, his thematic ambition (duty, loyalty, murder, betrayal), coupled with a good nose for a whodunnit twist, just about rescues this one. The Last Family In England by Matt Haig is out now, published by Jonathan Cape.
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