Dean Spanley

Dean Spanley is affable, conventional and prudent – the very archetype of a bland churchman. Only his keen interest in the transmigration of souls and his obsession with dogs betray any shadow of eccentricity.

But then, richly primed with a few glasses of Imperial Tokay, he begins to speak vividly of the joys of rabbiting, of rolling in fresh dung and of baying at the moon. Are these canine memories a drunken fancy? Or can it be that Dean Spanley must once have been a dog?

This special edition includes Lord Dunsany’s witty and inventive novel, My Talks With Dean Spanley , together with Alan Sharp’s award-winning screenplay for the film starring Peter O’Toole and Sam Neill, which faithfully adapts and expands upon the events in the story.

About the Author

Edward Plunkett, Lord Dunsany, was born in 1878. Early passions for chess, guns and dogs stayed with him on his path through Eton, Sandhurst and the Coldstream Guards. His untidiness and eccentricity set him apart from his fellow officers, and the Irish peer left the army after the South African war to concentrate on hunting, cricket and, increasingly, wriiting. He wrote nearly 50 books and plays between 1905 and his death in 1957.