Everybody needs an editor

You can imagine how a big old mug shot of an angry robin* will get you to reading inside:

In 40 years Cypriots have given Britain kebabs, easyJet, George Michael and Stavros Flatley.

Set against these varied gifts is a rather less palatable practice that is currently in full swing. In Cyprus they are trapping British robins, roasting them and eating them for dinner.

Form square men! The Navy's here! Details of this outrage?

... At the table they are generally gobbled down whole, after diners have spat out the feet and beak. Like the Queen of the nursery rhyme, two diners might eat four and twenty of the birds in a single sitting and pay €80 (£70) for the privilege.

Readers on the far side of the Atlantic are encouraged to check in at this point, but -- wasn't it the King who was served the four and twenty birds?


* Be not deceived. As Language Czarina points out, the one in "Mary Poppins" is an American robin.