First and foremost a big thank you to NetGalley, Polly Atkin, and Elliott & Thompson for providing me with a copy of this publication in exchange for an unbiased review.

Polly Atkin definitely has a way with words especially when talking about her neighbors: a handful of owls she's become increasingly enamored with over the years while struggling with chronic illness. Miss Atkin herself will tell you right up front she's no ornithologist but this memoir is a true testament to how much heart and passion goes into proclaimed "expertise". Her extent of owl knowledge is not only impressive but fascinating as well, catching the reader up on all the important touchpoints one would need and want to know about these feathered raptors of the night that seem to have so much heart.

This work transported me into the author's shoes, whether she was having a not-so-great health day or going for a peaceful walk in the woods to escape from it all. Thank you for sharing your story and spreading your deep respect for nature, Miss Atkin. Your book is a work of art!

An enjoyable book, part memoir part owl book. I enjoyed learning more about owls and reading about the nature elements.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this arc. Opinions are my own.

The NetGalley reviewing process is a curious thing. One wants to be fair to the authors who have put their heart and soul into their creations, but reading books to a specific time schedule can work against giving a book or an author a fair go. When I feel pressured to get something read by a certain date, it can take away my enjoyment of the reading experience.

Also, how does one deal fairly with those books that you have requested which turn out to be ones that don't meet your expectations or don't turn out to be right for you? In a bookshop, once you have sorted through all the choices and finally pick one off the shelf, you read the blurb or flick through it before putting it back, until you find one that urges you to also read the first page or two. A number of these books also end up back on the shelf until, finally, that magical reading moment happens when you start reading...and can't stop. That's the book we buy and take home with us.

With NetGalley it is much harder to make such considered choices. All we can go on is the cover, the front cover quotes and blurb. It isn't until we've requested something that ticks all the boxes re interests, genre, topic etc that we can finally read the first page or two.

The Company of Owls was one such book. I was expecting a more factual book about owls, perhaps à la Helen Macdonald. However, this is more a lockdown memoir as the author gets to know the owls in her local area during the pandemic. For me, there were too many "I" statements and not enough stuff about owls.
Suitable for readers who have a special attachment to the Grasmere area of the Lakes District.

This was such a fascinating read. I’m a sucker for any kind of book like this, with peoples experiences with owls and birds of prey and this was no exception. I love to read how these animals have such an impact on people as they have had such an impact on myself.

"Lass mich dir erzählen, was ich über sie gelernt habe..." so beginnt die englische Autorin Polly Atkin ihre Erzählung über Eulen im Allgemeinen und über Waldkäuze im Besonderen. Die Vögel leben in der Nähe ihrer Farm in Grasmere. Anfangs hat sie sie fast nur nebenbei wahrgenommen, aber mit der Zeit wurden sie zu ihren ständigen Begleitern.

Polly ist nicht gesund und mit Tieren zu leben ist für sie oft einfacher als der Umgang mit Menschen, von denen sie sich oft nicht verstanden fühlt, weil sie sich nicht in ihre Lage hineinversetzen können. Aber ihre Krankheit soll in ihrem Buch nicht im Vordergrund stehen.

Das Buch über Eulen, sondern über das Leben mit ihnen. Wie Polly anfangs sagt: sie erzählt darüber, was sie über und von den Eulen gelernt hat. Gelernt hat sie viel: wie sie Eulen findet, die oft ganz in der Nähe sitzen, aber trotzdem fast unsichtbar sind, weil sie mit der Umgebung verschmelzen. Oder wie man die Plätze findet, in deren Nähe sie sich aufhalten.

Besonders Eulenjunge haben es ihr angetan. nicht unbedingt, weil sie niedlich sind. Das sind sie gerade zu Anfang nicht, wenn sie nur Flaumfedern und ein viel zu großer Kopf sind, den sie nicht aus eigener Kraft halten können. Sie beobachtet die Küken, anfangs neugierig, als das Wetter umschlägt auch besorgt, weil sie nicht sicher ist, ob sie überleben werden. Polly fühlt sich hilflos, weil sie nicht weiß, was sie machen soll, aber sie lässt sich von ihrer Hilflosigkeit nicht lähmen, sondern sucht nach Antworten.

Sie macht sich Gedanken darüber, wie ihre Anwesenheit und die von anderen Spaziergängern und Wanderern von den Tieren wahrgenommen wird. Nehmen sie sie als Bedrohung wahr oder haben sie sich mit ihnen arrangiert? Vielleicht beobachten sie sie ja auch genauso, wie wir sie. Diesen Gedanken habe ich aus der Lektüre mitgenommen, denn in der Natur sind wir alle nur Gäste und sollten uns auch so verhalten, damit wir wiederkommen dürfen.

Das Thema Natur und besonders Eulen ist für mich immer ein Anreiz, ein Buch zu lesen. In diesem Buch habe ich viel mehr als erwartet bekommen. Für mich ist es definitiv eines der Lesehighlights in diesem Jahr und wird nicht das letzte Buch der Autorin sein, das ich lesen werde.

This story of owl-spotting mostly in the Lake District, kept there through lockdown and occasionally widened by trail-cam, is light and enjoyable.
I love the descriptions of wooded and mossed landscape, the stone walls and bogs, the hills and hollows. Owls made their homes in this territory, drawn by abundant rodent prey. The author and her partner watched a nest in particular, finding the three owlets every evening after they branched - left the hollow to perch on branches. Tawnys, barn owls, little owls and more feature.
I learned a good deal along with the author, who kept looking the latest development up to reassure or inform herself.
We don't seem to have rodenticide as a big problem, but we learn of day-flying owls getting shot by ignorant gamekeepers. Traffic of course is a major hazard. Lockdown helped small wildlife recover, and I hope it can stay that way.
This book bears comparison with Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton, which is also set during lockdown.

I read an e-ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. A well-written book about owls and their effect on people.

What an interesting and perfect novel. Polly Atkin has a way with words and story telling, the prose is simple and methodical yet lyrical.

Part diary, part nature observation logbook, part ode to owls and their resilience while facing the ever reducing territory and threats from humans!

Unfortunately The Company of Owls did not bring me as much joy as I have thought it will. I am saddened by this, but it is my truth. This probably stems from the fact I was expecting a lot of information/science about owl. And luckily(for me), Polly Atkins has included some of that, but this is not a popular science book, so if you are lucking for that, be warned! I really enjoy the idea of a nature observation logbook and especially the concept of citizen scientist - which is more what the author was doing, but the translation of that on the paper didn't really work for me. I've enjoyed the observations, but there was repetition and some of the description were somewhat tedious to read. Therefore it was a bit of a roller-coaster ride for me: with highs where I wanted more and lows where I skipped lines and/or paragraphs...
But I loved the message: the aware and try to attune to nature, the joy that bring is priceless!

Polly Akins writes so beautifully draws us into her world and her ode to owls.As she is recovering from an illness she starts to notice the owls their world their behavior.This is an intimate read of her life and the owls around her.I was drawn into this wonderful reflective story .#netgalley #thecompanyofowls.

Thank you NetGalley and Elliott and Thompson for this ARC.

Judging this book by its cover and title, one might think this is a field guide for bird watching (owl watching in this case), but it is not. This is a personal journey through the observation of owls. Polly Atkin combines her personal experiences in life (including her struggle with a chronic disease) with the observation of owls and nature it self.
I found this book very inviting to be more perceptive of nature and our surroundings. The writting is beautiful and soothing. I feelt very peaceful through the reading of this book. This is a heartwarming personal story. Although this is not a scientific work, I wish the book had included some illustrations.
The autor made it clear since the beginning “I am not a naturalist or an ornithologist”, but she acomplished her purpose “…I love my neighbours, the owls. I love them and I want you love them too”.
Thank you Polly Atkin for sharing your story.

This is such a beautifully descriptive book that really brings to the fore the author’s love of owls and how much they have impacted on her life. The Lake District is where Polly really encountered owls for the first time and her descriptions of the landscapes and natural history of the area are fascinating. The author brings poetry into this book and her narrative is poignant at times as it tells of her battles with poor health and how nature has healing powers that can never properly be understood.
I learnt a lot from this book as it describes not only the tawny owls of her Grasmere home but also other owls and other places she has lived. There are owls in the woods where I live, I often hear them but rarely see them, just an occasional silhouette at dusk so it was wonderful to share Polly’s encounters as it all really resonated with me. A truly wonderful reading experience and one that I will happily share with others.

Polly Atkin does not profess to be an expert, on owls or anything else. This refreshing book brings the love of birds, especially owls, right from her heart to yours. It also brings the sights, sounds, weather (oh, the weather!) of England’s Lake District right into your sitting room.

In the Company of Owls, we are treated to the author’s observations of the owls that choose to live near her. This nips off to other places she’s lived and visited, which adds richness to her descriptions, but it is her ‘home’ birds, and particularly one year in their lives, that is the main focus.

The author has wonderful descriptive powers, and it is no surprise to glean her interest in poetry from her tale. Her description of the bog habitat where she went looking for short-eared owls is superb, although given the daily walks that provide the basis for her writing about her local owl family as they grow, it is amazing that there is no hint of repetitiveness.

Atkins supports her story with solid research, comparing owl numbers now with the records since Victorian times. These details tend to slip in as anecdotes, and more narrative quotes combine to give a really good picture of how owls have fared over the last century or so.

It’s a very personal record, and she isn’t afraid to reveal her own mistakes, which brought me back after a slight dip in attention in the middle of the book. On the whole, I think this is a really good book for the cosy bird lover, and people who like to know all the birds on their patch, rather than the twitching variety. I’m a patcher, of course.

A beautiful cover and a beautifully written and observed 'ode to owls'! She has a lovely way with words so I will be searching out more of her work after reading this!

But this is her story of her encounters with her owl neighbours in Grasmere. Her first encounter made a lasting impression on her, so she's now watching out for them wherever she goes, by sight or sound, and it's lovely to see how involved she becomes in looking out for them if they needed help, especially around nesting time.

She includes lots of background on different varieties of owls, and also shares how humans have impacted on their habitats. From her own perspective she shares how lockdown impacted on her as she has a chronic illness, and having a chronic illness myself I really connected with her experience and how being out in nature, distracting yourself from the world, was a saving grace and a better focus of her mind when her health was good enough to be out and about.

I loved her use of poetry about owls, and her descriptions of nature was really evocative so this made for such an enchanting read, and a really lovely nature book. Highly recommended!

For me, The Company of Owls is a match made in heaven: gorgeous writing and owls. Since reading Polly Atkin's Much With Body, a poetry collecti0n, I've often found solace in her writing. The Company of Owls achieves this too, because while it charts the tawny owls living near Atkin's home in Grasmere, it also explores chronic illness, insomnia and finding connection with the outside world.

I've found myself telling people everything I've learned about owls through Atkin's weaving of anecdote, natural history and research. It is a collection of essays which will both move and enlighten the reader - particularly the linear essays following the tawny owlets!

And as the cherry on top, even Atkin's acknowledgments are touching - as upon finishing this comforting read, I also wished the owls delicious voles for the rest of time.

The author loves owls but until fairly recently has rarely seen them. Where she lived originally in the Lake District, she often heard them but only saw one briefly in Grasmere. She left the area for a while but moved back to Grasmere a little under 10 years ago. Again owls were "singing" her to sleep. She would say that she is no expert but is a watcher. This book is about her observation of owls and other things as well as her life more generally.

While this is about owls in the Lake District in particular, there is quite a bit about owls worldwide and historically. I did learn a number of things that I had not been aware of before. I certainly wasn't aware of just how long owls had been around for! The information on owls generally was interesting though maybe not a reason for buying this book solely for that. The author's health has not been good generally and at times quite poor. Issues about aloneness, isolation and covid for example are mentioned here. While I do have enormous sympathy for the author and her health generally, I never really felt connected to that aspect of this book sadly.

As this is about the Lake District it will probably not surprise people to know that Wordsworth gets a look in here. Literature about owls, Grasmere and the Lakes more widely are part of this and that will appeal to people. The author's observations of owls (& owlets) come to this as a diary narrative quite often and I did enjoy reading about it. Much of the minutia of owls lives is here and fascinating. Her owl sightings are generally quite close to her home. It was interesting to me that the app she used to identify bird calls was often very unreliable!

For me there is some great observational natural history in this book. I think some observers might consider some parts of this to be intrusive as far as wildlife is concerned however that will always be a tricky area of observation. I guess I did feel that things found on the Internet and fed to the author interested me less than her own personal observations. Ultimately there were parts of this book that I really did find very interesting. However they were quite well buried at times and other aspects of the book didn't really grab me.

“Don’t go with so much grasping in your heart and you may be lucky. Let go of your longing and you might be lucky.”

Rarely have I felt more at home in a book, rarely have it felt so understood by a narrative.

Polly Atkin’s wonderful journey through her own experiences with (not exclusively) tawny owls created such a deep, pure connection to nature that I might never forget. I felt like a visitor in Polly’s world, in the world of the owls, the babies, the adolescents and the adults.

I love the ideas the author touches upon such as loving nature from afar, or better, giving animals the space they deserve; or, her musings on human disturbances. I love the beautiful, not necessarily scientific, heartwarming explorations of nature, but also the author’s thoughts on her own reasons for burying the owl. This book stirred something in me, more than a laughter that I simply couldn’t suppress when the owls were described as attacking humans.

One things I wish I had gotten from Polly Atkin: photos! I so desperately want to see the owls, the trees, the lakes. (Well, I now follow her on Instagram so I got that in the end.)

Thank you NetGalley, Elliott & Thompson as well as Polly Atkin for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Here is yet another cover that drew me in 100%. So beautiful. However, I found the story to be very long in its narrative. It is told very simply without much of a wow factor. I know the feeling of seeing an owl in their own habitat and it is definitely a wow factor! Even though I know the author was excited at seeing the owls she tells of in her book, that excitement just did not come across on the pages for me. I thank NetGalley and Elliot and Thompson for the advance read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Elliott & Thompson for approving my request to read an arc of this book

Nature and animals are one of my special interests, birds being one of my favourite creatures in wildlife, so I was excited to read this book when I saw the gorgeous cover.
Animals have been known to have a healing nature, even if it’s just looking after them making you also have to care for yourself, at least on a basic level, or even just being in certain animals presence can provide a balm to anxiety, depression or pain. Polly Atkin can attest to this as her story tells of when her illness brought her to her family home for a year and she saw her first glimpse of the owls that would come to mean so much.
This was a beautiful story. I also enjoyed the writing style