Bird Life: The Extraordinary World of Ordinary Birds with an introduction by Stephen Moss
About this ebook
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 edition contains the two books she wrote about the birds, Birds as Individuals and Living with Birds. They are studies not just of bird behaviour but of their character, intelligence, singing voices, likes and dislikes. 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.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY STEPHEN MOSS
CONTAINS BIRDS AS INDIVIDUALS AND LIVING WITH BIRDS
Praise for Birds as Individuals
‘A unique, engaging and elegant insight into the lives of our precious and magical songbirds’ Arthur Parkinson
‘It impressed and moved me very much’ Steven Lovatt, author of Birdsong in a Time of Silence
Discover more
About the author
Len Howard (1894-1973) was a British naturalist and musician best known for her studies of birds, published as Birds as Individuals (1952) and Living with Birds (1956).
In her early life, Howard pursued a career in music in London, giving music lessons, organising concerts for the children of the poor and playing the viola professionally in an orchestra under Malcolm Sargent. In 1938, she purchased a plot of land outside the village of Ditchling, Sussex, and built the house she called Bird Cottage. There she developed an intimate and unusual relationship with the wild birds in the area, providing food (including her own war rations), chasing away predators, tending to damaged nests, and allowing the birds to fly and roost throughout her home. Her musical training gave her a unique insight into the diverse character of birdsong. Howard died at Bird Cottage in 1973.
