Product Description

Meet Les Green. Head of the most potent pigeon racing team in the UK - known in pigeon racing circles as ‘The Mafia’. A sharp-tongued, quick-witted ex-gang member from Salford who now devotes his life to breeding and racing pigeons that are as swift and consistent as the expletives that fly from his own foul mouth.

The RPRA (Royal Pigeon Racing Association) - an organization filled with ex brigadiers - sees Les and his lads as a bunch of Northern upstarts out to make trouble. Given the chance, and if they weren’t so damn good, the RPRA would ban them from competing.

This conflict forms the backdrop as we follow Les from his legendary coop in North Manchester to the National Pigeon Racing convention in Blackpool; on to the $250,000 Las Vegas classic; and finally to take part in the ultimate pigeon race - the $1 million bonanza in Sun City, South Africa.

A Very British Coop is the story of Les and his team trying to defy the odds and drag pigeon racing into the 21st century, meanwhile pursuing the ultimate feathered flying prize. It is also the first insight into a global pursuit which blurs hobby and sport, sees pigeons flown first-class round the world before changing hands for over $100,000, and where grown men will stop at nothing to see their bird flying into sight first.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44207 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 248 pages

Observer Sport
'Collings has a great tale here...and he tells it with
considerable wit and style.'

Sunday Times
'Comic and eccentrically charming.'

Daily Telegraph
'A very British Coop is affectionate and funny...a warm witty and
engaging book.'

Customer Reviews

blows the flat cap off your ideas about pigeon racing
I must say before I read this book I knew nothing about pigeons or pigeon racing and was a little dubious about whether a book on pigeons could really cut the mustard in terms of entertainment and enlightenment but how wrong I was. This book is a full feathered laugh fest and it introduces you to a world of feathered wonder that I never thought existed. In fact it not only cuts the mustard it throws in a few pickled eggs and a few dozen barm cakes for good measure. This is the book that turns pigeon racing into a laugh a minute romp. From Salford to Sun City the charcters and the laughs and the pigeon high jinks just keep on coming. I've not laughed this much since Bernie Winters lost Schnorbitz. It's what British humour is all about. A quirky sport, a load of daft blokes and an unpopular winged creature. I've heard that someone maybe making a movie based on this book. It can't happen quick enough for me. I've got my big packet of revels just waiting for the day. Great stuff Mr Collings. You've made a young man very happy.

Barry

Lightweight
I read this after Man Buys Dog by Dave Matthews and it suffers by comparison. The jacket promises more than the book delivers. It's an interesting enough journey from northern England to South Africa with quirky characters and a decent feel for the sport but unfortunately I don't get the feeling of being "in the thick of it" as promised.

Collings drifts through pigeon racing, looking for someone to help him send birds to the Sun City Million Dollar Classic. It's a meander rather than a journey and you have to ask what, apart from a new book for his CV, changes for the author in the year. Not much, to be honest and I find that to be a problem. Matthews engages you and takes you on a journey through his life. At the end you feel you know him and you worry about what will happen to the dog. Collings is still pretty much a cypher by the end of the book and to be honest, who gives a damn about the fate of a few pigeons? Even the spectre of bird flu doesn't have me on the edge of my seat.

If you like pigeon racing I'm sure you will enjoy the book. It's pleasant enough and informative with an easy style and a sympathetic look at pigeon men. It's not a bad book, but not one I want to read again. The problem isn't so much with the book as with the pigeons. That is my difficulty in marking the book. It doesn't draw me in and if I saw another book by Collings I wouldn't rush to buy it. It's a three, not because it's bad, but because I can't persuade myself to give it four.