A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEARLonglisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the YearRich and joyous ...The books quiet optimism about our ability to change, and to learn to love small things passionately, will stay with me for a long time Helen MacdonaldBig-hearted and quietly gripping GuardianI love Jon Days writing and his birds. A marvellous, soaring account Olivia Laing[A] beautiful book about unbeautiful birds ObserverThis is nature writing at its best Financial TimesAwash with historical and literary detail, and moving moments ... Wonderful TelegraphEvery page of this beautifully written book brought me pleasure Charlotte HigginsA vivid evocation of a remarkable species and a rich working-class tradition. Its 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 MailEndlessly interesting and dazzlingly erudite, this wonderful book will make a home for itself in your heart ProspectAs 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.