When Ellie tells Tuffy the family

is leaving for the week, Tuffy

couldn't be more thrilled. A

whole blissful week of rolling

around in the flower bed and

lounging on top of the TV? Tuffy can't wait! But the cat sitter the

family procures doesn't

understand Tuffy's refined feline

palate, and Little Miss Soppy

next door seems intent on

dressing Tuffy in a nightie and calling him Janet. To get out of

such a terrible mess, Tuffy is

going to have to rely on his

comical killer instincts.

'Okay, okay. So stick my head in

a holly bush.'

Tuffy knows what he likes. And

he doesn't like the 'art' that

Ellie's mum brings home from

her new classes. So what's a cat to do?

A few scratches here just

happen to shred a painting. A

nudge there somehow slips a

vase off a shelf. Dad hope a

horribly lumpy clay pot will be next, but Tuffy's having none of

it. The killer cat will go his own

sweet way!

Okay, okay. So spank my furry little bum. I held a party. It was my birthday. How was I supposed to know it wouldn't be the only party around townon that dark and dreary Halloween night?

The Killer Cat is back for

Christmas! A much-loved classic

by Anne Fine. So go on, ask me.

'Dear, dear Tuffy. Why was your

Christmas so horrible?' Well. I

couldn't climb the tree. I couldn't touch the dangly

decorations. And Ellie made me

part of her sing-along Christmas

performance. Horrible, horrible,

horrible! But I showed them. I

was Tuffy the Acting Cat, superstar. How was I supposed

to know things would get so . . .

messy? Anne Fine has written

numerous highly acclaimed and

prize-winning books for

children and adults. The Tulip Touch won the Whitbread

Children's Book of the Year

Award; Goggle-Eyes won the

Guardian Children's Fiction

Award and the Carnegie Medal;

Flour Babies won the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread

Children's Book of the Year; and

Bill's New Frock won a Smarties

Prize. Anne Fine was named

Children's Laureate in 2001 and

was awarded an OBE in 2003.

Tuffy doesn't feel wanted at home any more. His owners just don't appreciate him. So what if he broke the new TV? Got fur on all Dad's clean clothes? Ate Tinkerbell the kitten's special kitten-food? All accidents! But they're making such a fuss!