Guest blog – Rook Sunday

Hello there, I’m the Stroppy Author’s crow. Today is Rook Sunday, in honour of which I get to write the post today. I also get to wear a nice crown, made from one of those paper napkin rings you get on Eurostar. Firstly, I’d like to say that the Stroppy Author is also a Domestic Slut, as my bluebells are dying and have not been replaced. Ahem. Now, to business…

The Sunday closest to 13 May each year is called Rook Sunday. This is not a happy day of celebration for us corvids, as it’s the day people traditionally bake rook pie, gruesomely decorated with the feet of rooks. Crows (corvus corax) and rooks (corvus frugilegus) are related, but people do not eat crow pie, thankfully.

Just in case you think this is post is irrelevant I would like to point out that pies stuffed with dark-coloured birds do have some bearing on children’s books – what about those four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie, eh? And children’s writer Russell Ash told the Stroppy Author about an establishment figure asking at dinner ‘Can you get your keepers to eat rook?’ (Probably put in an expenses claim for the pastry and the pie dish, too.)

Back to real publishing next time…