This time last week I was sat in a room, with thirty other people, staring at a dead bird. In the previous two hours it had been through the incredibly involved and yet stunningly simple process of taxidermy, as demonstrated by artist Polly Morgan.

Behind the walls of the museum, in its inner sanctum*, we gathered. In front of shelves which held all manner of taxidermied and skeletonised animals there was an old wooden workbench on wheels. A semi-circle of chairs looked in upon this workbench, where Morgan sat and transformed a blue tit from something fragile in its state of death, into something that would endure.

It was fascinating.

The amount of time, skill, patience, and effort that is applied solely to create something that looks almost exactly like it did when you set out, is remarkable. Especially since if it is done well, all of this will be…