It's a dog's life ... celebrated in A WONDERFUL EXHIBITION

It is an unusual exhibition which offers so much. While throwing the spotlight on famous people, it is their companions who take centre stage. Derek James reports.

- Derek James

DO YOU LOVE DOGS? Are you interested in history and art?

Well, if the answer is yes to any of the above, you have until the end of October to head Newmarket way.

The Good Companions: The Many Roles of our Canine Friends, is at the brilliant National Horse Racing Museum. It is a compelling and engaging exploration of our relationship with dogs down the centuries.

Featuring paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, books and objects, even taxidermy of our four-legged friends, the exhibition has wonderful stories to tell.

Among the works on display are pieces by such luminaries as our own Sir Alfred Munnings, George Stubbs, Willian Hogarth, Edwin Landseer and Dame Elizabeth Fink, with depictions of dogs ranging from cheerful mongrels and sleek greyhounds to determined little terriers.

Each of the 30-plus works were chosen by curator Katherine Field as they tell extraordinary stories about individual dogs, and the exhibition follows a series of themes: Dogs as Companions, Dogs as Heroes and Sporting Dogs.

The Heroes features the story of Jack, whose owner was none other than Norfolk’s Edith Cavell, the nurse who saved hundreds of allied troop’s lives in German-occupied Belgium during the First World War. She was arrested in August of 1915 and executed by firing squad in the October, outraging millions of people.