Homing by Jon Day

Jon Day’s first book, Cyclogeography, described his former life as a London cycle courier, said Joe Moran in The Guardian. Its “quietly gripping” successor, another memoir, draws us into the even more “unfamiliar world” of pigeon fancying. Having been fascinated by pigeons as a child, Day purchases a small flock of racing birds shortly after moving into a terraced house in east London with his partner and new baby. It’s a stressful time for him personally, and also one in which the “idea of home” is in crisis: property prices are “crazier than ever”, while billboards across London warn illegal immigrants to “go home”. By learning about the “extraordinary homing instincts” of pigeons, Day reflects on the importance of home-making in his own life.

This is an engaging account of a “peculiarly male obsession”, said Cal Flyn in Prospect. Originally a form of release for factory workers who didn’t have the freedom to travel, pigeon fancying is in danger of dying out in the UK, though it has been bolstered recently by the “fresh enthusiasm” of immigrants. “Endlessly interesting and dazzlingly erudite, this wonderful book will make a home for itself in your heart.”