"The Peacock in the Chicken Run" is a tightly-structured 'long short' story of what happens when a cross-section of the Indian diaspora in the UK are deplaned on their way 'home' to Bombay to which they were headed with diverse, and momentous, objectives. London's Heathrow airport brims over with confusion, family resentments, hidden passions, secret grief and prejudices, while a cast of surprisingly real characters each deal with disappointment and truncated travel plans. McCallum has an extraordinary grasp of the volatile Indian character, at one moment volcanic, the other both humble and arrogant, alternately submissive or vengeful, petty and generous. In "The Peacock in the Chicken Run", he demonstrates once more his keen observation of human nature and his intense compassion