Polly Atkin: The Company of Owls

As Polly observes the adult tawny owls and three of their offspring through the seasons, she shares her wonder and delight in these enchanting, inquisitive and playful birds of prey. Their routines and behaviour, which Polly is so fortunate to witness, enable her not only to learn about the owls but also about herself, leading her to think differently about some of the big needs of all our lives: being alone and companionship, individuality and belonging, rest and retreat. Frightened of the dark as a child and with a long history of insomnia, Polly listens to the owls at night and begins to see night time as a zone of possibilities and these mostly nocturnal birds keep her company, singing her to sleep. Witnessing the interaction between the owls and their owlets she sees love and tenderness, appreciating that love is what drives our and the owls’ survival. Her time watching the owls also teaches her to listen amidst a world full of noise and recalibrate her attention to the sounds of the woods, its movements and its inhabitants.

Living with chronic illness, which Polly movingly recounts in her memoir, Some Of Us Just Fall, she realises that she has a special affinity with the owls, feeling at times more like an owl than a human with her hyper-sensitive, hyper-aware and hyper flexible body. Her chronic illness also leaves her at times very isolated and disconnected from the world but living in the digital age helps transform this, connecting her to friends and also owl watchers in other continents, linking her even more with her non-human neighbours.

The four other species of owls which live in Cumbria, the barn owl, the little owl, the short-eared and long-eared owl, swoop through the pages of this magical book but it is the tawny owls in Grasmere, which she has such unusual access to, which ultimately capture her attention.