I’d heard of James Rebank and how he’d taken on the family farm in Cumbria so I was interested in reading this book and hear why he’d gone to a remote island off Norway to stay with a duck woman. He’d been to Norway as part of a group taken by the Norwegian tourist board many years ago and the memory of the trip had stayed with him. He felt a connection with Anna when he had met her. He decided to write to her and ask if he could go and stay with her while she was looking after the nesting eider ducks. She replied saying yes and to bring working clothes. They would be on the island for about 2 months.
It was going to be Anna’s last year on the island as she was now 70 and not in great health. Her friend Ingrid was going with them. It was hard work clearing old seaweed from nests and repairing them. Collecting more seaweed to line them with. The bad weather stopped them going out everyday which James Rebank found difficult. They had to use a compostable toilet. When the eider ducks eventually came they had to protect them from predators. It was a successful year although they did lose some to abandoned nests. After the ducks left they then had to collect the eider feathers from the nests and take them back to clean them, several times. The boat came to take them back to the main land with everything they had taken out with them.
It was a gentle read and interesting to hear about the duck women who do this job for very little money.
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I was asked to review this book by NetGalley. I was intrigued by the cover initally.

This was an inspring story about a "duck woman^ named Anna. She dedicates her life to a a population of elder ducks on an island.

A guy named James decides to spend a season with Anna and a friend. Anna as described has dedicated her life to keep thede ducks safe, as their popularion has been depleated over the years. Anna goes back to tradition. Anna has a real connection with nature as James and readers will discover.

Beautifully written, slow paced which helps the reader unwind too from their fast paced lives.

A trully humbling story recommended read.

A delightful read, it was a warm hug in book form!

James has given a voice to Anna and generations of ‘duck women’. The book moves at a day to day pace as James, Anna and Ingrid spend spring and early summer on the island overseeing the nesting season at a very practical level!

Anna shares with James, the history of the bird women and is honest in some of her personal reflections.

This was very different to my usual genre so the long chapters and writing style took some getting used to but overall was a gentle, enjoyable read.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this book.

This book pulls you deep into the lives of frail, elderly Anna, a Norwegian duck, woman. She is one of the stitches that hold a way of life that goes back aeons delicately in the 21st Century.

James weaves the story gently, respecting Anna and her friend Ingrid’s approach to their summer on the island, preparing for the Eider's arrival, protecting the nest and then stepping away from the Landscape and returning to their other lives.

Do not expect high-speed drama, there is plenty of drama, but it unfolds. Whether memories of the past or threats to the ducks in the here and now. Do expect a book that delivers with a lightness of touch and you will want to read on and on. It will leave you moved and changed.

Anna gains strength from the island and is determined to be part of a successful duck season. The ducks she understands are part of her emotional DNA.

James Rebanks steps into the aging Anna’s realm. No longer her solitary place, with assistant Ingrid who is learning the necessary nature lore of being a duck woman. Rebanks writes in a distinctive style that pulls the reader close as he unreels the narrative of life before, during and after the eiders. He is the interloper but not a passive observer he is drawn into the work assisting Ingrid, he is the student she is now the teacher. The writing style is immersive, the narrative cloaks you in an eiderdown of carefully crafted words. The story is more than the down left to be collected and cleaned at the end of the season. It is about regaining what is important and what we have lost as we speed through life governed by material possessions.

This a story that captures nature not through rose-tinted glasses, of a plucky heroic woman. It is a testament to Anna’s stubbornness, hard work and understanding of how traditions are at the heart of society. This is nature red in tooth and claw and toxic human relationships. The cement throughout the book is the story of the family, the Eiders and Anna.

A beautifully observed memoir of a way of life, hanging on despite so many obstacles for the Eider duck. The ducks have many predators, the natural animals and mink. Mink, we took to the islands to profit from their fur. The narrative ebbs and flows with Anna's memories and through her words and generosity of spirit, we step into her thoughts and understand, the pull of nurturing a haven for the Eiders to flourish. This is achieved by the skilful narration by James Rebanks. Place of Tides never preaches it is the unveiling of a landscape which without his words would remain an unknown way of life.

The Eider ducks need more Annas. Nature needs more Annas, individuals who give their time and effort to understand and be guardians of this precious and vulnerable world.

The Ducks from the sea need our help; sand eel stocks are being depleted, resulting in mother ducks arriving underweight. Hunger is driving the Eider back to the sea, their eggs remain unhatched.

Nature is a delicate balancing act. This book reminds us of our role in upsetting the equilibrium of climate and habitats. Somehow, we must quickly learn to live in partnership with nature. To cease extracting everything that can be bought and sold. This is our world and theirs.

Place of Tides evokes a landscape managed, controlled, and destroyed by the ebb and flow of salt water. A landscape of islands where weather is the sixth sense shaping a person’s experience day and night.


The Place of Tides reminds the reader of what we should value and what is important in life.

‘She looked like a Queen – not in her clothes or possessions but in her defiant eyes. Anna lived a rebellion against modernity.’

Be more Anna is my clarion call. Observe and act and understand the importance of nature’s ebb and flow.

Place of Tides by James Rebanks, published by Allen Lane, Penguin Books on 27th October 2024.

This 'story' provides a snapshot of time that the author spent on a tiny island off the coast of Norway, with an elderly 'duck woman' who is determined to keep her family traditions/heritage alive. James Rebanks shares echoes of a time gone by in this moving homage to Anna, on her last season as a 'duck woman', ensuring the safety of the eider ducks as they nest and collecting their down for duvets.
As well as Anna's story, the richly detailed description of the island and the flora and fauna add much to the book.
This wasn't my normal read - neither story, memoir, historical - but would recommend to anyone.

This is a beautifully told story of life on a remote Norwegian Island. James leaves his life in Cumbria to spend the Spring with Anna, who cares for eider ducks. The descriptions are just lovely and it is quite an emotional read in some ways, as you find out more of Anna's life. It is a very inspiring read and one I would really recommend to lovers of nature. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book by James Rebanks about his short time with two Norwegian woman caring for and facilitating an important role for eider ducks. Sadly it seems that traditions such as these seem to be coming to an end and it certainly does convey an end of an era.

3.5 stars rounded up.

With thanks to NetGalley and Penguin/Allen Lane for the arc.
This a beautifully written account of a short period of time (around 2 months) that James Rebanks spent on an isolated Norwegian island helping two Norwegian women care for nesting eider ducks. As with his previous books (dealing with life on a Cumbrian farm), Rebanks is at his best when describing the beauty and harsh realities of the natural world, and humankind’s attempts to both fight against and work with it for survival.
There are some gorgeous and moving passages in this work, and Rebank’s descriptions of some of the self-realisation he experienced whilst being forced to slow-down, contemplate and ‘just be’ were inspiring, but I did feel there was an awful lot of projection going on. He infers wise thoughts from the main duck-woman Anna, often just from a glance she gives him or a clenching of a fist/curling of a finger “I would ask her thoughts about something, and she would shrug and point to whatever the ducks were doing on the foreshore. Her meaning was clear:focus on this world instead, on what is, not on what you think about it.”
And how nice to be able to go and spend two months on a remote island and have time to rediscover yourself whilst your wife carries the heavy load of running the farm and raising your children in your absence - though Rebanks “Occasionally…felt a weary emptiness and wondered why I was not with my family at home, on my own farm.” I’m sure he didn’t feel half as weary as his wife did…
Overall a well-written account of one man’s attempts to slow down and find meaning in his life, and some fascinating descriptions of a lifestyle and region under threat from modernity.

The British narrator charts the last summer of a Norwegian woman looking after eider ducks on a remote island. It tells of the day-to-day work of running a duck station, interspersed with stories of the woman’s heritage and family. As he reflects on what makes her so special in the time he spends with her, he also compares it to his own life and what he should do differently.

It is quite inspiring how she has lived her life, but there is also a wistfulness that she has become too frail to live that life.

I was drawn to the description of the book and whilst the writing was great and evidently being something others will enjoy it just wasn’t for me. I Definitely recommend having a go though! It maybe your cup of tea!

I read this book as somebody recommended it to me, although it’s not a genre which I normally enjoy

I am so glad that I started it. I was engrossed from the beginning and finished it with a strong desire to visit the archipelago.

"We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came." –John F. Kennedy

Real life Cumbrian farmer James Rebanks was feeling lost. He felt the need to escape many buried feelings, and that created a desire for complete isolation, but true isolation is pretty much a fantasy in the modern world.
Can one ever escape from constant thoughts of grief, work, worry and pain?

James decided to contact Norwegian, Anna, an elderly lady whom he’d met some ten years before. The outcome was that he traveled to Norway, right on the edge of the Arctic, and spent the whole of Spring learning 70 year old Anna’s ways as she cared for wild eider ducks and collected their down, in what was to be her very last visit to a remote island.

This is the true story about one Spring spent on a duck station on a remote Norwegian island for James. However, the star of this memoir is duck woman Anna, who has dedicated many years caring for wild Eider ducks, giving them a safe haven, and gathering their down. Hers was a centuries-old trade that had once made men and women rich, but had long been in decline. Still, somehow, she seemed to be hanging on.

Anna’s life and quiet wisdom makes James stop see, hear, and appreciate everything around him, slowly helping bring about a self-knowledge and forgiveness, and most importantly the process of healing his mental health. Beautifully told, this is food for the soul.

I started this book and found it quite hard to read so stopped. I went back to it a few days later and pleased that I did. Anna is a keeper of eider ducks throughout the season on a Norwegian island. When the ducks leave at the end of the summer season she collects the eider feathers and takes them off the island. She is elderly and on her last trip to stay on the island for this process James, who she met years ago, asked whether he could join her. Luckily he picked a time where he would be with her for her last time on the island. James is worried about the ecological decline in the world and feels that he will learn from his experiences. As he leaves for the island with Anna another lady joins them and over time he realises that Anna is not in good health but she is determined to carry on her work while it is possible. When reading this book you come to realise how the world is turning in the wrong direction and if it was not for people like Anna and, of course, James who are trying to change people to think about age old crafts and sustaining our planet, life will become difficult. I do not usually read stories like this but I did continue to the end I did not find it as my kind of book. I do appreciate though the way it was written and it is worth reading if you like factual (which it is) ones

This is not the type of book I would normally choose but it is a really pleasant, easy read and I enjoyed it. Beautifully descriptive, well written and enlightening. By the end of the book I was definitely happy to have learnt about Anna, her love for the ducks and this traditional way of life.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read it and to the author for sharing your knowledge in this lovely book.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC copy of this book.

This book follows the author on his trip to remote Norway to learn from and document the spring season of a Norwegian lady working on one of the few remaining eiderdown duck stations. Given that this follows the author’s real experience, there is no big drama, plot points or any antagonists, allowing the book to be both thought-provoking and peaceful.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book despite it being a vastly different genre than what I am used to.
The author describes people and settings perfectly, making everything feel accessible and real without overindulging in excessive dramatisation. I could picture everything he discussed with ease and I feel in a book like this that is essential. The reader is encourage to appreciate the beauty of nature without exaggeration.

The story of the people continuing and adapting to centuries-old traditions is inspiring and really encourages the reader to consider their own life choices and actions. Overall this was a very enjoyable read and one that will stay with me.

James Redbank spends time with Anna, an eider duck woman, in Norway. This is a very gentle, unassuming story, lovely writing. The way the women care for the birds is amazing and this book is a delightful insinght into an old traditon that is in danger of disappearing - along with the reducing numbers of seabirds that need the care and attention. I loved the gentle flow of the days and the pages.

This is the perfect antidote to the stresses and strains of today’s world. Such a special insight into the old tradition of eider down cultivation and the care of the ducks. This transported me to a much more peaceful, slow way of life on the Norwegian islands where Anna and her family have lived and visited each summer. The author has done her proud recording the history of her family and this way of life. It is like watching one of those ‘slow movies’ on Tv and just as relaxing and curative. Sad that this way of life is coming to an end and how by such things as the introduction of mink to the islands the industry was devastated so also provides a stark warning about the interference in nature by mankind. This was a very different read for me but one that I will long remember.

The Place of Tides is a gentle but fascinating book about the author’s spring season spent on a very remote island in Norway's Vega Archipelago, with Anna ‘a duck woman’. Anna has spent much of her life caring for flocks of eider ducks who come to the islands, just south of the Arctic Circle, each spring to nest, breed and leave behind their incredibly soft down which is a much sought after resource. The down is a bonus as the real point if Anna's hard work is the welfare of the ducks and carrying on the work in the traditional ways her family has done for generations.. Now 70, this is her last visit to the island and she agrees to let the author, James Rebanks, accompany her to help and write about that she does. Anna’s friend Ingrid also joins them.

The three spend weeks cleaning up the previous season’s damp and used nest made from seaweed before making hundreds of new one in anticipation of the ducks returning. This is all carefully monitored and logged and once the ducks come Anna is on hand with her rifle and keen eye to protect the ducks from prey such as mink, otters and sea eagles. After the ducklings fledge and the ducks leave for warmer climates, Anna and her helpers spend weeks meticulously collecting and cleaning the down before it can used.

The account is slow and meandering with much detail of their days which are long and repetitive but good for tired and weary souls, including the author himself who was taking time out from his own life to help his mental health. The author also tells the story of Anna’s background and family life although I didn’t feel I’d fully grasped that by the end and would have liked to know more and see photos of Anna, the island, her friends and family and of course the ducks. The names and some events have been changed to preserve anonymity so I don’t think that will ever be possible.

I’m still not sure why humans go to so much trouble to clean and re-build nests each year and don’t let the ducks do this but the tale was quite mesmerising and good for the soul. With thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Press for a free copy of this delightful book in exchange for an honest review.

This is an interesting account of the work of women in the north of Norway, working to collect eider down from the nesting ducks. The facts and the musings of the writer are interesting and new to me, but the book moves along very slowly and very little happens apart from the work with the ducks. This is clearly the point of the book but i did find it dull at times. Much of the work and the days are repetitive with little change day to day. The writer clearly finds this a huge change in his life and finds himself changed because of it. He plans to return to his life with an altered perspective on his family relationships and on the work that has to be done.
I am fortunate in having visited the Lofoten islands and can picture the environment, even though the islands in the book are more remote.
While interesting, i found it difficult to engage with the characters.

Without this book I would never have known about the duck women in Norway. Incredibly well written, a powerful story that left me feeling a little sad about what we are doing to this planet and its wonderful wildlife. Definitely worth reading.