Homing : On Pigeons, Dwellings and Why We Return

Precise and poignant * Spectator * I love Jon Day's writing and his birds. A marvellous, soaring account * Olivia Laing * A compelling blend of personal memoir, nature writing and popular science, Day's book considers the humble pigeon, probably our oldest companion species. * Mail on Sunday * Homing did something I thought would be impossible - made me fall in love with the humble, familiar feral pigeon. It is both a repository of fascinating stories and memorable characters, and a deeply felt personal enquiry into the nature of 'home'. Every page of this beautifully written book brought me pleasure * Charlotte Higgins * 'A terrific book which explores the sport inside out, as well as our own human concept of what home is' * Daily Telegraph * In this lucid and beguiling book, Jon Day has written marvellously interwoven tale of our two species * Jonathan Raban * A meditation that swoops agilely over topics from tyranny of technology to the paradoxes of parenting and the rewards of simply staying put. . . . A joyful, richly rewarding book * Mail on Sunday * Big-hearted and quietly gripping * The Guardian * [A] Vivid evocation of a remarkable species and a rich working-class tradition...a charming defence of a much-maligned bird * Daily Mail * Day's stories from the history of human-pigeon relations are well chosen and well told ... there's a great deal to like in the simple imagery of a young family and their pigeons growing up together in an east London home * Literary Review * This beautiful book by an English lecturer-cum-pigeon fancier reveals eerie parallels between human and bird life ... [A] beautiful book about unbeautiful birds * The Observer * Jon Day takes on the humble racing pigeon to ask just what home is, how we establish it, miss it and depart and return to it. He elevates this heroic bird to its rightful place in natural history and our history too, and celebrates its shared instinct with us for home... the art his own family and academic career... He has many fascinating accounts of how we've exploited these miraculous birds' homing instincts in war and peace... Day swoops and soars over many fields of art and science to unravel our instinct for home Endlessly interesting and dazzlingly erudite, this wonderful book will make a home for itself in your heart * Prospect Magazine * I totally love Jon Day's new book Homing. For people who recognise that feeling familiar to Freud, of being homesick for nowhere, Jon's sense of making a particular home, or of knowing your way back to one, is a miracle-narrative of birds and men. Humane and beautifully navigated, it is hands down a book of the year -- Andrew O'Hagan A dazzlingly erudite memoir about family, children and pigeon-fancying. An unlikely combination perhaps, but Day pulls it off. * Prospect Magazine * Day's stories from the history of human-pigeon relations are well chosen and well told ... there's a great deal to like in the simple imagery of a young family and their pigeons growing up together in an east London home * Literary Review *