The poor pigeon

by Ann Thwaite

A pigeon flies into a window in Rob's house, breaking the window and making a mess of the house as it tries to get out again.

24 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Ann Thwaite is a British writer who is the author of five major biographies. AA Milne: His Life was the Whitbread Biography of the Year, 1990. Edmund Gosse: A Literary Landscape (Duff Cooper Prize, 1985) was described by John Carey as "magnificent - one of the finest literary biographies of our time". Glimpses of the Wonderful about the life of Edmund Gosse's father, Philip Henry Gosse, was picked out by D.J. Taylor in The Independent as one of the "Ten Best Biographies" ever. Her biography of Frances Hodgson Burnett was originally published as Waiting for the Party (1974) and reissued in 2020 with the title Beyond the Secret Garden, with a foreword by Jacqueline Wilson. Emily Tennyson, The Poet's Wife (1996) was reissued by Faber Finds for the Tennyson bicentenary in 2009.

Reviews

[David Finger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won’t lie, I was disappointed. I erroneously assumed this would be a book in which the titular pigeon’s socio-economic status would would discussed in pain-staking detail by author Ann Thwaite. Was the pigeon a victim of a misguided reliance on laissez faire capitalism where the weakest pigeons found themselves exploited? Or perhaps the pigeon was witness to a well intentioned but ultimately destructive form of pigeon wealth redistribution which led to hyperinflation. Did a single kernel of corn triple in price in one day, rendering him unable to afford food for his family? Would he become a champion of Keynesian Economic theory or would his poverty radicalize him into a proponent of the economic theories of Karl Marx. All of these were questions I eagerly awaited answers to as I opened the book.

Instead I was told a tale of a pigeon who flew into a bedroom and broke a window.