Bird Cottage

Product Description
A novel based on the true story of a remarkable woman, her lifelong relationship with birds and the joy she drew from it
Len Howard was forty years old when she decided to leave her London life and loves behind, retire to the English countryside and devote the rest of her days to her one true passion: birds.
Moving to a small cottage in Sussex, she wrote two bestselling books, astonishing the world with her observations on the tits, robins, sparrows and other birds that lived nearby, flew freely in and out of her windows, and would even perch on her shoulder as she typed.
This moving novel imagines the story of this remarkable woman's decision to defy society's expectations, and the joy she drew from her extraordinary relationship with the natural world.
Review
Shortlisted for the Society of Authors Vondel Prize
'Bewitching... will make you want to throw away your travel pass and move to a remote cottage... Read it to de-stress'
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The Lady‘A convincing account of total dedication and self-belief, and there's beauty and joy in Len's strange life... entertaining and thought-provoking’ - The Guardian ‘Truly original... There's a sense of birdlike lightness and agility about this episodic, elliptical novel’ - The Daily Mail ‘The author's fluid, seemingly weightless prose is perfectly matched to the birds she describes... This beautiful creation will be a source of great pleasure for birders and readers alike’ - Country Life ‘A delightful, poignant tale’ - Saga Magazine ‘A celebration of a life spent immersed in nature’ - Town & Country
Review
In this perfect match of writer and subject, Eva Meijer brilliantly evokes the precious, vibrant and complex society Len Howard shared with songbirds at her cottage in Sussex. This beautiful novel is haunted by loss -- of individual birds, as well as the spectre of species collapse, and the vanishing of entire life worlds.
-Sue Donaldson, author of Zoopolis
'I tend my herd and flock by day so I have to read into the night; I cannot put it down'
-Rosamund Young, author of The Secret of Life of Cows
About the Author
Eva Meijer is a Dutch author, artist, singer, songwriter and philosopher.
Bird Cottage is her first novel to be translated into English, has been nominated for the BNG and Libris prizes in the Netherlands and is being translated into several languages. Her non-fiction book
When Animals Speak has also been translated into English. Eva Meijer was awarded the Halewijn Prize in 2017 for all the books she has written so far.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Prologue
1965
Jacob flies swiftly into the house, calls to me, and then immediately
flies out again. He rarely makes a fuss about things, and
never flies very far from the nest once his babies have hatched.
He usually visits the bird table a few times in the morning, and
then stays close to the wooden nesting box on the birch tree.
He is a placid bird, large for a Great Tit, and a good father.
I follow him out of doors and hear the machine even before
I’ve left the garden. I run clumsily on clogs that almost slip off
my feet. No. This can’t be happening. Not that hedge. Not
in the springtime. But a stocky man is trimming the hedge
with one of those electric hedge-cutter things. He can’t hear
me through the racket. I squeeze between the hedge and the
machine. The noise drowns out everything, crashing in waves
over me, boring through my body.
It gives him a shock to see me there, suddenly in front of
him. He switches the thing off and removes his ear-protectors.
“What’s up, missus?”
“You mustn’t trim this hedge. It’s full of nests. Most of the
eggs have already hatched.” My voice is shriller than usual.
It feels as if someone is strangling me.
“You’ll have to speak to the Council about it.” He turns
the machine on again.
No. Twigs jab at my back. I move to the left when he
moves, and then to the right.
“Get