Cat Among the Pigeons (Golding novel)
book by Julia Golding
Cat among the Pigeons is a young adult novel by Julia Golding, first published in the United Kingdom in 2006 by Egmont Publishing, and by Roaring Brook Press in 2008 in the United States. It is a story about Pedro the slave's fight for freedom. The main character is Cat, a girl of around 12 who is Pedro's best friend.
Plot summary
It is London in the late 18th century, and slavery has just been ruled illegal in England but is still common in the British West Indies. Pedro's old slave master, Mr. Hawkins, comes to London and tries to reclaim Pedro as one of his properties. He is at first thwarted by Cat, but he vows to return.
Pedro's friends, Cat, Frank, Lizzie, Syd and the gang try to secure his freedom. Cat finds trouble following her once more as she is chased around London by the Bow Street Runners, coming for her arrest for biting Mr Hawkins after he taunted her. Disguising herself as a boy with the help of her friends, Frank and Charlie, she enters an aristocratic boarding school and learns Latin and fencing, things that girls are never taught.
The public source identifies “Cat Among the Pigeons (Golding novel)” as book by Julia Golding. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Among, Pigeons and Golding.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Cat Among the Pigeons (Golding novel)”, the useful work is to connect “book by Julia Golding” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5051078. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2006 and 2008.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Cat Among the Pigeons (Golding novel)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Cat Among the Pigeons (Golding novel) primary sources, Cat Among the Pigeons (Golding novel) archive and Among research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Cat Among the Pigeons (Golding novel)”?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Cat Among the Pigeons (Golding novel)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.