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|title=My Animals and Other Family

|author=Julia Blackburn

|date=November 2007

|isbn=978-0224082341

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The best thing about Julia Blackburn's childhood was the animals which lightened the burden of her parents' constant rows. ''My Animals and Other Family'' is primarily about the animals - from Congo the bushbaby through to Jason and Henry the dogs - but in telling of them she allows us an insight into the people around her. Her father was Thomas Blackburn, the poet, who would frequently return home drunk and spoiling for a fight with his artist wife, who would later complain to Julia of his violence and infidelity. Much of her childhood was spent in trying not to hear the rows.