Andre De Dienes Book

I was in Kew Gardens, in London, with my son and there were quite a few totally-unafraid golden pheasants doing their courting around our feet. I was so impressed by the primary-coloured beauty of them I got the book Extraordinary Pheasants. That was such a beautiful book covering the whole range of pheasants including peacocks that I got this book, Extraordinary Chickens.

Totally different book. Its just as well photographed but its almost a humorous book, the chickens are so incredibly silly-looking. Half of them looked like twittering ladies trying to impress with their hats at a garden party. But there were revelations too - a beautiful pure white-feathered chicken turns out to have coal black skin. I'd recommend this book as a gift to any one who keeps chickens, likes silly hats or instead of a fattening box of chocolates, to cheer oneself up.