Bunhill: A bird in the hand

SO FAR, the title of Livewire Entrepreneur of the Year has not been afflicted with the curse that has poured so much scorn on other accolades. This is possibly because Livewire is an offshoot of Shell and thus more business-like than the organisers of other prizes.

This year Livewire has assembled a promising group of finalists, including a producer of stained glass, a lad called Jason who makes and sells accessories for video games and an equally trendy woman called Eira, who is cashing in on the Dawn French-inspired idea that fat is fashionable.

But the smart money must surely be on John Dickson. His firm, the splendidly named Native Bird Control, consists of falconers with peregrine falcons. These are trained to swoop on the thousands of sea gulls that 'treat landfill sites as open-air restaurants', as Dickson puts it, and spread muck and disease around them.

It's a delicate business, because the falcons only return to their handlers for food. So if they catch one of the gulls they don't bother to come back.

Dickson is only 25 but has 'been in the business' since he started training barn owls at the tender age of 11.

(Photograph omitted)