Guy Kennaway

Basil 'Banger' Peyton-Crumbe is a prolific killer of game, pheasant, ducks etc and is killed in a pheasant shooting accident (or was it an accident?) He is reincarnated as a pheasant and taken as a young bird to an estate he despised as a human as being all about numbers and not about skill, where pheasants are killed and their bodies buried, rather than eaten. In this novel, all the animals can talk to each other and are constantly frustrated because the humans can't understand them. So we are set up for something funny and perhaps thoughtful. We are shown the full horror of pheasant rearing on an industrial scale but, despite being the one being shot at, 'Banger' continues to maintain that shooting pheasants is a noble sport and he does make a good case for the skill involved. Being a pheasant does allow 'Banger' to reflect on his actions as a father. He had not seen eye to eye with his daughter and for many years they had been estranged. They had become closer again before his death but he feels guilty for how he had mis-understood her. There is irony in that 'Banger' is eventually helped in his quest to return to his old estate by an anti pheasant shooting man. An easy read that didn't quite deliver.… (mehr)