?

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

___

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.

___

‘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

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

___

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.

___

‘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

‘Defiant and dazzling’
Freya Bromley, author of The Tidal Year

‘Essential reading’
Jessica J. Lee, author of Turning

‘Long before I knew I was sick, I knew I was breakable . . .’

After years of unexplained health problems, Polly Atkin’s perception of her body was rendered fluid and disjointed. When she was finally diagnosed with two chronic conditions in her thirties, she began to piece together what had been happening to her – all the misdiagnoses, the fractures, the dislocations, the bone-crushing exhaustion, the not being believed.

Some of Us Just Fall combines memoir, pathography and nature writing to trace a fascinating journey through illness, a journey which led Polly to her current home in the Lake District, where outdoor swimming is purported to cure all, and where every day she turns to the natural world to help tame her illness. Polly delves into the history of her two genetic conditions, uncovering how these illnesses were managed (or not) in times gone by and exploring how best to plan for her own future.

From medical misogyny and gaslighting, to the illusion of ‘the nature cure’, this essential, beautiful and deeply personal book examines how we deal with bodies that diverge from the norm, and why this urgently needs to change.

This is not a book about getting better. This is a book about living better with illness.

Her personal letters and unpublished journals from this time paint a portrait of a compassionate and creative woman who made her sickroom into a garden for herself and her pet robin and who finally grew to call herself a poet. They also reveal how vital Dorothy was to her brother’s success, and the closeness they shared as siblings. By re-examining her life through the perspective of her illness, this biography allows Dorothy Wordsworth to step out from her brother’s shadow and back into her own life story.