Sam is an intelligent and inquisitive ten year old who loves her cat, books and afternoon outings with her father. One day, during one of their walks, Sam and her father sit by a tree and read together. Feeling a little tired, she puts her head on his shoulder and drifts off to sleep. Now dreaming, she is once again at the tree, this time with her father and her cat, Socrates. Lazily relaxing on Sam's lap, Socrates is suddenly awakened to the presence of a mouse and immediately leaps off in pursuit of his prey. Calling to him, Sam jumps to her feet and runs to a nearby wall that he has jumped...

Throughout his professional life, the poet Thomas Moore (1779 1852) was variously celebrated and vilified for both his verse and his politics. Born in Dublin, he remained an ardent Irish patriot until his death. This eight-volume collection of Moore's memoirs, diaries and letters, edited by his friend Lord John Russell (1792 1878) and first published between 1853 and 1856, provides rare insights into a man whose genius was applauded by the Morning Chronicle as 'embracing almost all sides of imaginative literature, of criticism and philosophy'. Volume 4 contains Moore's diary for the period...