From Marley & Me to Old Yeller, most books about owning a dog are pretty mawkish affairs, a cynical tug at your heartstrings as you follow the journey from cute puppy to faithful friend to tearful final farewell at the canine equivalent of Dignitas. But this memoir, about a coked-up journalist who only finds true happiness when she buys a lurcher, is a different beast entirely. It’s grown-up, intelligent and marbled throughout with a wit that is, appropriately, dry as a bone.

Kate Spicer is a style writer for various glossy magazines and lives in Notting Hill, neither of which is likely to endear her to the casual reader. However, from the very first page she exhibits such a merciless candour when describing the shallowness of her life, peopled by air-kissing