Not So C**p Taxidermy

I've spent the day at Stacey's auction house in Rayleigh, watching as the very modest heirlooms from the family home went under the hammer. I haven't been to that part of Essex for a long time. What a lovely road the Southend Arterial is. It was opened in 1925 and was the first road in the country built specifically for motorised vehicles. As a child I remember it as a haunt of the ton-up boys.

I pleaded with the auctioneer to take my granny's stuffed cockatoo, telling him that taxidermy is nearly as big now as it was in Victorian times. I had read of Elle Kaye, who is only twenty-two, teaches taxidermy and eats the roadkill she stuffs. She was once asked by a man to make a pair of slippers out of two guinea pigs for his wife. She also preserves deceased, much-loved, pets for their owners. We were never told the history of granny's cockatoo. Maybe it was a pet? As a family we have high regard for the parrot family.

My title refers to Adam Cornish's @craptaxidermy on Twitter. Granny's Cocky isn't c**p, he made £90. :)