Bird Cottage is a translation of a novel written in Dutch about an English woman called Len Howard.

Gwendolen (Len) Howard was born in 1894 and became an accomplished musician.

In 1938 she gave it all up and moved to an isolated cottage in Sussex where she studied birds, especially the Great tit.

She became quite well known and in the 1950s published a bestselling book called ‘Birds as Individuals’. However, her research was rejected by the scientific community.

Meijer tells her story in novel form interspersed with some of Len’s writing.

Len came from an eccentric, cultured family and was encouraged by her father to take an interest in birds.

She escapes to London but, despite her promising musical career, misses her tame birds more than her family.

When she makes the move to Sussex she becomes known as ‘The Bird Woman”. The descriptions in the book of her tussles with the local council and anyone who dares disturb her birds shows the strength of her character, but she is totally unmoved by the death of her father and rarely contacts other members of her family.

The birds are Len’s life. They fly in and out of the house and she studies their characters and their habits giving them names. During WW2 she buys food for her birds rather than for herself.

This is an enchanting book and gives one a whole new outlook on the avian world.