Rats represent the worst of us, or at least that is what we tell ourselves. They are rapacious, over-sexed, destructive, pestilent and, on occasion, cannibalistic. But as with all those animals we brand as 'vermin', rats are in fact a mirror species, thriving as a direct result of the way we live and reflecting back to us our worst excesses. They are also a creature to which we owe a lot.
 
Arguably no other animal has done more for the advance of human medicine than the rat.
 
In Stowaway, author Joe Shute will unpick this complex relationship between human and rat. Documenting the arrival of the brown rat in the west from during the expansion of global trade in the 18th century and how it has pushed our black rat species to the brink. He will chart its course through history from old maritime logs to diaries kept by soldiers in the trenches in the First World War to the present day where an estimated 10 million rats are believed to live in Britain alone.
 
Stowawayis a tale of old rat catchers, crumbling industrial buildings and city back alleys, taking the reader into a part of the natural world they normally hurry past. And it is also a story of the human condition, asking why we deem some animals acceptable in our lives and condemn others to the shadows? As well as tracking rats in the wild and meeting experts to help unpick rat intelligence and social structures, the author attempts to understand and overcome his own aversion to the rodents. Following the likes of Beatrix Potter he decides to keep two pet fancy rats to better understand the creatures.