Coincidentally, I have had the company of owls over the last few weeks, as the local tawnies call around to see if this patch is taken. So I was delighted to receive an ARC from Netgalley and the publishers of Polly Atkin’s new book, which came out on Thursday.
The Company of Owls
by Polly Atkin
As the autumn nights draw in, join Polly
Atkin in a nocturnal love song to the owls
that surround her Lake District home – a
stunning meditation on learning to listen
in a world full of noise (Goodreads)
A nocturnal love song in a world full of noise… From the author of Some of Us Just Fall, longlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing.
In the woods above Polly Atkin’s home in Grasmere, Cumbria live the tawny owls she calls her neighbours. Each night, they come down to her cottage at dusk, calling out as night falls – in particular a trio of owlets she watches grow from fledglings to young adults.
As the antics of the owl siblings develop – their capacity to play, to bicker, to share and to protect – they encourage her to think differently about some of the big needs of all our lives: solitude and companionship, care and belonging, rest and retreat. And into the frame step questions about all sorts of relationships, from how we feel when in darkness to the homes and connection we so desperately seek.
The Company Of Owls is a love song to these incredible creatures, and a reflection on what makes them, and us, unique and distinctive. It’s a call to find joy in unexpected places and times. It is a lesson in learning to listen – to really listen – when all around us seems clamour and noise. (Netgalley)
I think I’d have skipped this if I’d only seen the Goodreads blurb! So I thought you’d like both.
My Review
Polly Atkin does not profess to be an expert, on owls or anything else. This refreshing book brings the love of birds, especially owls, right from her heart to yours. It also brings the sights, sounds, weather (oh, the weather!) of England’s Lake District right into your sitting room.
In the Company of Owls, we are treated to the author’s observations of the owls that choose to live near her. This nips off to other places she’s lived and visited, which adds richness to her descriptions, but it is her ‘home’ birds, and particularly one year in their lives, that is the main focus.
The author has wonderful descriptive powers, and it is no surprise to glean her interest in poetry from her tale. Her description of the bog habitat where she went looking for short-eared owls is superb, although given the daily walks that provide the basis for her writing about her local owl family as they grow, it is amazing that there is no hint of repetitiveness.
Atkins supports her story with solid research, comparing owl numbers now with the records since Victorian times. These details tend to slip in as anecdotes, and more narrative quotes combine to give a really good picture of how owls have fared over the last century or so.
It’s a very personal record, and she isn’t afraid to reveal her own mistakes, which brought me back after a slight dip in attention in the middle of the book. On the whole, I think this is a really good book for the cosy bird lover, and people who like to know all the birds on their patch, rather than the twitching variety. I’m a patcher, of course.
A lovely review of what sounds like a Wonderful book Jemima. Huge Hugs
It sounds like the sort of book I like. I’m not a birder (well, you know that), but I do like to know my little patch of ground intimately, and to stop to hear the birds (or watch the salmon spawn, or a tree fall—I did both of those yesterday).