E B White is known for heartwarming works like Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little – lesser known but just as heartwarming is his obituary for his Dachshund, Daisy, published in a 1932 issue of The New Yorker.

In it he describes how she ‘died sniffing life’ as she was accidentally hit by a car. In typical White fashion the author mixes grief with humour: ‘Her life was full of incident but not of accomplishment. Persons who knew her only slightly regarded her as an opinionated little bitch, and said so.’