Travels With My Chicken: A Man And His Companion Take To The Road

When Martin Gurdon''s previous book, Hen and the Art of Chicken Maintenance, was published, he and his chicken, Tikka, decided to embark on a one-man, one-bird, whistle-stop tour from the Southeast of England to Edinburgh in Scotland, via a children''s nursery, a home for old soldiers, and numerous women''s institute meetings. This trip was the inspiration behind his latest book, Travels with My Chicken, a delightful story about just how far some authors will go to get their books noticed, and the highs and lows of being out on the road with only a chicken for company.

Gurdon travels from Tunbridge Wells, England, to Aberystwyth, Scotland, promoting his first book by any means possible, including a huge wooden cartoon chicken stuck to the roof of his car. The weeks he spends zinging from one part of the country to another with a chicken in an old cat box soon make him realize that he has another book in the making. Wasn''t it interesting, for example, that all his interviewers asked him virtually the same questions. Would he eat his traveling companion, or any other member of his flock? (No.) Did he eat his chickens after they were dead? (Heck no.) Not only does having a chicken on hand land Gurdon into the world of morning television and radio, but it also introduces him to people he wouldn''t ordinarily talk with, such as a gaggle of bored teenagers in a bookshop, or prison inmates contemplating the literary life. The end result is a hilarious and heartwarming book about people and places as much as it is about chickens.