This fantastical composition takes its inspiration from Geoffrey Chaucer’s comic daydream, The parlement of Briddes, written in Middle English in 1382.

The sole human being on this avian canvas is Icarus, who in Greek mythology used feathers secured by wax to fly like the birds. Fueled by naive over-confidence (or willful arrogance?) he approached too close to the sun, which serenely melted the wax, sending him plunging towards earth.

(Oh yes, there’s also a photographer on the scene, just hanging on, in a world seriously out of control.)

To my impatient eye, having viewed decades of political arrogance and over-reach, some of the birds in this composition do suggest a foul attitude of self-importance. But face it, their roost is at the centre of supreme power. The rest of us will just have to try to hang on.