Homing: Pigeons, Dwellings and Our Innate Sense of Return

A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR, Longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year, this book is a "Rich and joyous" exploration, as described by Helen Macdonald, with a "quiet optimism about our ability to change, and to learn to love small things passionately" that will stay with readers for a long time. The Guardian calls it "Big-hearted and quietly gripping," while Olivia Laing lauds Jon Day's "marvellous, soaring account" of his birds. The Observer describes it as "[A] beautiful book about unbeautiful birds," and the Financial Times deems it "nature writing at its best." The Telegraph praises its "Awash with historical and literary detail, and moving moments ... Wonderful," and Charlotte Higgins affirms that "Every page of this beautifully written book brought me pleasure."

As a boy, the author, Jon Day, was fascinated by pigeons, which he used to rescue from the streets of London. Twenty years later, when he moved away from the city centre to the suburbs to start a family, 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.

Pigeons have lived closely with humans for tens of thousands of years, becoming powerful symbols of peace and domesticity. Yet, they are also much-maligned, and nowadays most people think of these birds, if they do so at all, as vermin. Homing is a book about the overlooked beauty of this species, and about what it means to dwell. It 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.

The Daily Mail praises Homing as "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." And Prospect magazine calls it "Endlessly interesting and dazzlingly erudite, this wonderful book will make a home for itself in your heart."

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