This isn't about books, though it might feed into a book one day. I was going to write about AI, but it's a Sunday and I think we could do with something more cheering. So I give you owls.
My parents used to collect owl figurines. When my dad died, the second to go, my brother and I were left with about 80 owls of different sizes. It's hard to know what to do with 80 owls if you don't share the previous owner's passion regard for them. I don't have space in my house for a collection of owls, either. What to do with the owls was a tricky question. I took a couple (one is an outdoor owl and sits in my garden), and my brother took one or two. We gave most to charity shops. But some were smuggled.
Whenever someone who had known my parents visited the house, my nephew or neice took a small owl from the stockpile and hid it somewhere in the visitor's. I found two owls unstolen into my car. One still lives in the glovebox, one in the door compartment.
And yesterday I found a third, jammed under the seat. It's been there more than year, waiting quietly among the dropped sweet wrappers and baby socks. What a wonderful moment of discovery! A quick flash reminder, not only of my dad but of my nephew's funny, thoughtful kindness in those difficult days of sorting through two lives.
Anne Rooney
Out now, Weird and Wonderful Dinosaur Facts, illustrated by Ro Ledsema, Arcturus 2025
1 comment:
Over the 15 years I was at my previous house, I collected owls; I had a chess set that was specially made for me, and various others - I don't know exactly how many but they were all boxed up when we moved here, and went into the loft while we sorted the place out and were using half the house as storage for our book business. The box, unopened and untouched, is still in the loft - 35 years on!
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