Sibling rivalry in the pigeon loft – ‘I was determined to be the executioner, to submit its body to one brief, last act of violence and free it from the daily round of humiliation and abandonment back in the loft’.

  “Hold your head up when you sing. And stop slouching and mumbling. Smile! For heaven’s sake, smile!”

  “My mother used to say that we had to leave our neighbours in peace sometimes”