The Last Family in England (edition 2005)

'Nobody knows exactly how the Springer Uprising started. Or how. There are different stories, but it happened too quickly for anybody to be sure. Within no time at all, Springer spaniels could be found in almost every part of the country, spreading the word.' 'Dogs for Dogs, not for Humans' and 'Pleasure before Duty' say the Springers and more and more dogs follow their lead.

But of course Labradors are everything Springer spaniels are not: dutiful; obedient; prepared to sacrifice everything for their masters. So Prince, a young black Labrador, is a fervent adherent to the Labrador Pact, a resistance movement which reveres the Family as the most beautiful aspect of human existence, and the proper environment for a dog to live. 'Duty over All' is the motto of the Pact and Prince tries to follow this creed as dogs all around him live for the moment. But his family is falling apart: suicide attempts, marriage, breakdown and teenage problems mean that Prince's attempts to protect his family become more and more desperate.

The Last Family in England is a black comedy which starts with Prince awaiting his final appointment with the vet, and tells the story of how his breaking of the Pact led him to that position. I didn't enjoy this one as much as The Radleys by the same author which I read last year, but still a decent book and a good holiday read. And as someone who used to own a Springer Spaniel, the idea that Springers are responsible for an uprising makes perfect sense! ( )

Sadly this book didn't grab me in the way that Haig's other book, The Radleys, did. I loved the idea of the Labrador Pact, loved Prince - he reminded me of my aunt's labrador, Fred - but I found the family so tiresome and two dimensional, even when mitigated through a dog's eyes I just couldn't care about them enough to really engage with the book properly. ( )

Heartbreaking page turner about a labrador who does all he can to save his family. ( )

This is the one that I swore I wasn't going to listen to once I found out after purchasing it that the dog dies.

Labradors share a special special pact to take care of their family. This is the story of a labrador's eye view of one family's disintegration. The more our narrator tries to fix things, the more out of control they become.

Partly I chose to listen to this because I was intrigued to read that it is a retelling of Shakespeare's Henry IVth part II. Our four footed narrator's name is Prince. His best doggy friend is named Falstaff. Things go wrong and no matter how hard our hero tries to change this, bodies (dogs and humans) pile up, including, at the end our narrator.

You do find out in the first few sentences that the dog will be put down. However, it seems so inevitable from the beginning, so much the classic tragedy, that I didn't have the same emotional reaction that I do to most stories where the animal dies. ( )

Charming unsentimental tale of family breakdown described by a dog in a distinctive droll voice that does not shrink from harsh observations. ( )