Blackie & Co.: Blackbirds in My Garden

From Marginalian Editions comes a profound meditation on our capacity for connection with other creatures.

In the savage winter of 1962—Europe’s coldest in eighty years—a blackbird began roosting in the elderberry tree in Hockley Clarke’s overgrown garden. Clarke, a retired headmaster and lifelong birder, named him “Blackie” and began bringing the bird food every morning and evening. Soon, the blackbird was flying down to greet him with “a few glad chuckles,” and a quiet and extraordinary f...