Bird Cottage

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Escaping to London and a prestigious career in music, she misses her tame crow far more than she misses her family.

Humans have overtaken through development the habitats of many “animals” and yet are obligated to recognize the sovereignty of evolutionary kin. Maar in de grote stad mist ze het contact met vogels, iets waar ze van kleinsaf al sterk mee bezig is.When I first read Howard’s books, I was immediately struck by her relationships with the birds and by her writing voice. The scope of the novel is wide-reaching, yet at its centre is this one boldly drawn character, a woman who knows her own mind and whom we as readers are privileged to come to know as well. With a window always open for the birds to fly in and out, she dedicated her life to studying their behaviour in a natural, rather than controlled laboratory environment.

She named it Bird Cottage, and opened it – literally, she kept the windows open – to the birds who lived in the area. Meijer composes a serene portrait using scenes from Len’s youth, her time in London and everyday affairs at Bird Cottage, which are woven together with the story of Star, Len’s favourite great tit. In the end all the puzzling, hard work of the translation process vanishes into the ether, and only the text remains: words that weave a story beyond both Dutch and English.

This guarantee only applies to a property when you see it advertised on the property listing when you make your booking. The language starkly shifts through the emotional registers, sometimes plain, and sometimes evocative. Simply, spaces by humans and other beings can be shared, as Howard’s life of cohabitation and Meijer’s thoughtful novel demonstrate. 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.

Because large or small, brown, patterned or jewelled, there is something about birds that makes us, even for just moments at a time, lift our eyes away from our lives and up to the skies. As she despairs to her local grocer (and one of her few remaining friends) Theo, “I can hardly get enough butter for the birds. Len Howard for 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. She never lost her interest in birds, but she also when 21, played as a violinist for a symphony orchestra. Roosting boxes all over the house, birds (great tits more often than not) flying about and settling on her as she does her daily chores.Her entire family suffers from it, and she finds a first escape into music; and a second escape by forsaking most human company altogether and devoting herself to the study of the birds she loves. Dadurch war sie mir sofort sympathisch, denn sie schien nicht so recht in die Welt und Zeit zu passen in der sie lebt.

Such a glorious sense of place is created, and soon, Len's cottage, with all of its little quirks, feels rather intimate. Bird Cottage is a beautiful celebration of one woman, Len Howard, and her unwavering devotion and passion for wild birds. Literally, because she keeps the windows of her remote cottage open, so that robins, tits and blackbirds can fly in and out as they please. The story gives a glimpse of her rich family, mother who is occupied with organizing the soirees and managing everyone. As a reader unfamiliar with Len Howard’s life and work, it’s impossible to know where fact and fiction ends but it’s this blurring of lines that makes Bird Cottage such an absorbing read.She becomes something of a recluse, even denying the postman access to her garden, where she lets the birds pick thread off her socks to line their nests. No life comes out as a finished whole but is assembled from pieces over time, and then changes again. You can imagine spending many happy hours here enjoying each other’s company and relaxing into your holiday.