George A Magpie Memoir by Frieda Hughes

 

The author had recently moved to Wales, when she rescued three injured magpie chicks that had fallen from their nest and been abandoned. Only one of these survived, she named him George. 

This is the story of Frieda Hughes' life with George, who for a few short months was a huge presence in her life until he flew away back into the wild. 

The book is a very engaging tale of looking after a mischevious and very intelligent wild magpie who had a 'tangible sense of humour'. Interwoven with this primary narrative are details of Hughes' work at renovating her new home and garden, while suffering from chronic health problems and the breakdown of her relationship.   

George develops a good rapport with the author's three dogs, and we are treated to many scenes of how they would play together, George often hiding dog treats and the dogs finding them. George in fact seems to think he is a dog! 

He also developed a very close relationship with the author herself:

"He was also happy just sitting in my hand as I loved around doing chores: cooking, tidying up, whatever I could do one handed. Sometimes I held him in one hand and painted with the other; and he'd watch my face or my pantbrush as it moved, and seemed captivated. So was I. Of course I realised that everything took twice as long to do with a magpie hanging off me, but I also wanted to make  the most of every minute. His warmy feathered presence was like having an emissary of the natural world grounding me daily."

This ia a very readable account of life with a wild bird, with fascinating insights into the intelligence of magpies.  

George: A Magpie Memoir by Frieda Hughes, published (2023) by Profile Books. 

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Today is World Book Day! To celebrate this fact, yesterday's Crafty Green Poet Substack post was all about books! You can read it here.