The Company of Owls

The Company of Owls

By: Polly Atkin

ISBN: 9781783968145
eBook ISBN: 9781783968152
Cover: Hardback
Published: November 7, 2024
Size: 216x138mm
Page Count: 224

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Share in the company of owls in this nocturnal love song… From the author of Some of Us Just Fall, longlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing.

‘I couldn’t put down this warm and comforting, beautiful book.’ Ajay Tegala, author of Wetland Diaries

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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. 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.

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‘Rarely have I found a book so transporting, so moving.’ Jessica J. Lee, author of Dispersals

‘A beautiful guide to moving through this world with tender curiosity, joy and reflection.’  Sally Huband, author of Sea Bean

  • ‘A beautiful guide to moving through this world with tender curiosity, joy and reflection’


    - Sally Huband, author of Sea Bean
  • ‘I will be thinking about the owls and the landscape of this book for a long time to come’


    - Jessica J. Lee, author of Dispersals
  • ‘I couldn’t put down this warm and comforting, beautiful book’


    - Ajay Tegala, author of Wetland Diaries
  • ‘The author is fortunate in her proximity to [owls], but this touching, gentle offering shows that, given a humble heart and willingness to stand still in Nature and look and listen, you can get closer to owls than you’d imagine.’


    - Country Life
  • ‘A poet and writer based in Cumbria, Atkin has long entertained frequent visits from owls to her garden, and sees them as her neighbours. Here, she reveals what they have taught her about life’


    - iNews
  • ‘An elegiac meditation laced with gems of owl lore’


    - Saga