The following appeared as part of the ‘Londoner’s Diary’ column of the Evening Standard on 23 May 1990.
THE WORLD of pet owners is divided following the perverse suggestion by novelist Tom Sharpe that old people should get cats on the National Health so that they would catch fleas and die.
It is a view with which Sharpe’s fellow writer Kingsley Amis concurs. “My cat Sarah Snow had to be put down three weeks ago and I must say my hay fever has improved since then. For the last 15 years I spent every day of my life sneezing with running eyes and nose. I believe it’s provoked by parasites’ excrement hidden in the fur.”
But animal lover and this paper’s art critic Brian Sewell is indignant. “Tom Sharpe is entirely wrong,” he tells me. “The presence of animals in the house is prophylactic. The exposure to bugs ensures immunity to disease so one can enjoy holidays to darkest Europe without worry of nasty diseases.”