Published: October 24, 2021
London in Bits features The Parakeeting of London as one of its top non-fiction books ahead of Christmas this year:
On the Wikipedia page for ‘Feral parakeets in Great Britain’ it says that the birds “are wild-living, non-native parakeets that are an introduced species into Great Britain… The origins of these birds are subject to speculation, but they are generally thought to have bred from birds that escaped from captivity.”
What Nick Hunt (and photographer Tim Mitchell) did back in 2019 was take that ‘speculation’ and stretch it into this marvellous, absurd and weirdly beautiful book of ‘gonzo ornithology,’ in which they embark on a journey to uncover the origin story of the London parakeets.
Letting the birds themselves guide them, Nick and Tim travel through parks, cemeteries, riverbanks and allotments, stopping to talk talk to a variety of Londoners on the way (some love the little lime-green invaders, others are less keen) to collect a kind of oral mythology of the London parakeet.
We got in touch with Nick to ask him what kind of person the The Parakeeting of London would appeal to. Here’s what he sent us:
“This book – which follows the ‘flyways’ of London’s invasive parakeets through a series of encounters with people whose lives they have affected – is for lovers of urban legends, punk ecologists, gonzo ornithologists and anyone fascinated by our changing environment. Whether you love them or hate them, welcome them or fear them, regard them as destructive invaders or paragons of diversity, The Parakeeting of London will tell you the wonderfully weird story of London’s brightest new arrivals.”