Pigeon racing has its roots deep in traditional working-class communities: it thrived among Britain's miners, shipbuilders and iron and steel workers. At its peak in the early 1970s there were over two thousand societies and a hundred and thirty thousand members. As the decade wore on and heavy industry collapsed, communities were torn apart and the number of birdmen fell below sixty thousand.

Zak Waters realised the sport was changing and began following the dwindling community with all its humour, its anxieties and its passion. This is his record of the slow death of a culture that has changed almost beyond recognition. Rod Adams, a legendary writer on all things pigeon, contributes witty and knowing stories about the sport and the characters who made it what it was.