Homing: On Pigeons, Dwellings and Why We Return
Jun 2019 · Hachette UK
Ebook
272
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About this ebook
A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR
Longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year
'Rich and joyous ...The book's quiet optimism about our ability to change, and to learn to love small things passionately, will stay with me for a long time' Helen Macdonald
'Big-hearted and quietly gripping' Guardian
'I love Jon Day's writing and his birds. A marvellous, soaring account' Olivia Laing
'[A] beautiful book about unbeautiful birds' Observer
'This is nature writing at its best' Financial Times
'Awash with historical and literary detail, and moving moments ... Wonderful' Telegraph
'Every page of this beautifully written book brought me pleasure' Charlotte Higgins
'A vivid evocation of a remarkable species and a rich working-class tradition. It's also a charming defence of a much-maligned bird, which will make any reader look at our cooing, waddling, junk-food-loving feathered friends very differently in future' Daily Mail
'Endlessly interesting and dazzlingly erudite, this wonderful book will make a home for itself in your heart' Prospect
As a boy, Jon Day was fascinated by pigeons, which he used to rescue from the streets of London. Twenty years later he moved away from the city centre to the suburbs to start a family. But in moving house, he began to lose a sense of what it meant to feel at home.
Returning to his childhood obsession with the birds, he built a coop in his garden and joined a local pigeon racing club. Over the next few years, as he made a home with his young family in Leyton, he learned to train and race his pigeons, hoping that they might teach him to feel homed.
Having lived closely with humans for tens of thousands of years, pigeons have become powerful symbols of peace and domesticity. But they are also much-maligned, and nowadays most people think of these birds, if they do so at all, as vermin.
A book about the overlooked beauty of this species, and about what it means to dwell, Homing delves into the curious world of pigeon fancying, explores the scientific mysteries of animal homing, and traces the cultural, political and philosophical meanings of home. It is a book about the making of home and making for home: a book about why we return.
Longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year
'Rich and joyous ...The book's quiet optimism about our ability to change, and to learn to love small things passionately, will stay with me for a long time' Helen Macdonald
'Big-hearted and quietly gripping' Guardian
'I love Jon Day's writing and his birds. A marvellous, soaring account' Olivia Laing
'[A] beautiful book about unbeautiful birds' Observer
'This is nature writing at its best' Financial Times
'Awash with historical and literary detail, and moving moments ... Wonderful' Telegraph
'Every page of this beautifully written book brought me pleasure' Charlotte Higgins
'A vivid evocation of a remarkable species and a rich working-class tradition. It's also a charming defence of a much-maligned bird, which will make any reader look at our cooing, waddling, junk-food-loving feathered friends very differently in future' Daily Mail
'Endlessly interesting and dazzlingly erudite, this wonderful book will make a home for itself in your heart' Prospect
As a boy, Jon Day was fascinated by pigeons, which he used to rescue from the streets of London. Twenty years later he moved away from the city centre to the suburbs to start a family. But in moving house, he began to lose a sense of what it meant to feel at home.
Returning to his childhood obsession with the birds, he built a coop in his garden and joined a local pigeon racing club. Over the next few years, as he made a home with his young family in Leyton, he learned to train and race his pigeons, hoping that they might teach him to feel homed.
Having lived closely with humans for tens of thousands of years, pigeons have become powerful symbols of peace and domesticity. But they are also much-maligned, and nowadays most people think of these birds, if they do so at all, as vermin.
A book about the overlooked beauty of this species, and about what it means to dwell, Homing delves into the curious world of pigeon fancying, explores the scientific mysteries of animal homing, and traces the cultural, political and philosophical meanings of home. It is a book about the making of home and making for home: a book about why we return.
About the author
Jon Day is a writer, critic and academic. He is the author of Cyclogeography (Notting Hill Editions, 2015) and Homing (John Murray, 2019), which was a book of the year in the Guardian, The Spectator, Daily Telegraph and Observer, and was longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. He is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books, and his essays and reviews have also appeared in the Financial Times, New York Review of Books, Bookforum, n+1, Guardian, The Spectator and many others. He teaches English and creative writing at King's College London.
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