From Publishers Weekly
There's something wonderfully British about Gurdon's wry little memoir about traveling around the United Kingdom with his chicken, promoting a book he'd just written called Hen and the Art of Chicken Maintenance—which is a good thing, as this book doesn't exactly have much on its mind. A freelance writer who cheerfully admits, "basically, I'll write about anything," Gurdon stretches out his small store of anecdotes to book length, but at least he doesn't overstay his welcome. There's plenty of humor in his accounts of appearing on morning TV shows, chicken in tow, and visiting various tiny bookstores where he and the chicken (named Tikka, naturally) are accosted by eager chicken farmers and bored teenagers. On more than one occasion, Gurdon veers off track, neglecting his chicken-discussion duties for thoughts on various characters he meets on this journey, as well as for some self-deprecating ruminations on his career as a "serial opportunist." And any book that ends with the tale of how the author ended up driving to the Edinburgh Fringe Fest with an angry-looking tattooed wooden chicken affixed to the car is worth at least a passing glance by most appreciators of the mildly offbeat. Illus. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Gurdon, a freelance journalist, wrote a book about his adventures with his backyard chicken flock (Hen and the Art of Chicken Maintenance, 2004), a funny chronicle of neophyte hen keeping. Hatching a scheme to promote the book, Gurdon first appeared on a BBC morning show with one of his hens, then set out to travel around England publicizing the book however and whenever he could. He discovered that people not only liked his chicken companion but they bought his book. There were the bored teens in Ashford, Kent, who lined up to feed the hen. There was the animal-rights-group-protesting-duck-farming gauntlet to run at one bookstore. A visit to a nearby prison involved frisking the hen on the way in. Along the way, he was routinely asked if he would eat his chickens if they died, and why chickens cross the road. Illustrated with the author's drawings, this droll book is perfect for reading in 10-minute snatches and will appeal to both animal lovers and devotees of Wodehousian humor. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
