BIRDS AS INDIVIDUALS

Enter the secret lives of Britain s ordinary garden birds and the brilliant unconventional woman who opened her doors to them In the late 1930s Len Howard packed up her life in London bought a plot of land in Sussex and built herself a little house there This was to be Bird Cottage a place where the doors of the house were open to the birds of the garden great tits blue tits robins blackbirds willow warblers and many others Len lived the rest of her life alongside her bird neighbours with some sleeping in her bedroom and many flitting in and out all day long This is the book she wrote about the birds a study not just of their behaviour but their individual personalities We learn about their intelligence emotional lives and characters their capacity for play and humour the range of their song their likes and dislikes and their bond with Len Enchanting life enriching revelatory and completely original this is a gorgeous evocation of a life lived in intimate contact with nature and a book about birds unlike any other A unique engaging and elegant insight into the lives of our precious and magical songbirds Arthur Parkinson A quiet revelation of attentiveness and sympathy It impressed and moved me very much Steven Lovatt author of Birds