An Unkindness of Ravens by Matt Sewell
I ain’t no sucker for punishment but I’d love a raven to be unkind to me – go on and give me a dead leg! Tell me I can’t draw! I wouldn’t really want them picking the flesh off my cold dead bones but to spend a bit of time with these guys would be ace. Apart from the ones with clipped wings in the Tower of London, ravens are hard to get close to. We have to make do with spotting them in the sky, together in an unkindness, curving the air in ever-increasing circles – which is a handy way of telling them apart from their close corvid relatives, such as the carrion crow who flies in straight lines.
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From the Caught by the River Book of the Month for October, A Charm of Goldfinches and Other Collective Nouns. Signed copies can be found in our shop, priced £12.