By Canon Mike D Williams
Gathering eider duck feathers is an unlikely theme for an evocative portrayal of life. James Rebanks, a writer and farmer whose previous books ‘A Shepherd’s Life’ and ‘English Pastoral’ are wonderful reflections on rural life in the Lake District, travels to some remote islands off northern Norway. He has met Anna, a ‘duck woman’ who spends her summer on a tiny island building duck houses ready for the breeding season.
For a few weeks in the summer the female birds come onto the land to lay their eggs. It used to be a significant industry in the islands when thousands of ducks landed, made their nests using their own duck feathers. Once they left then the locals would collect, sort and clean the eiderdown. A good income was achieved for the islanders. Success depended on the ability to build attractive nesting boxes to shelter the ducks from the elements. Now the number of ducks has drastically reduced. Only a handful of people travel out from the main island Vega to the remote islands each summer.
James is invited to spend the duck season with Anna and her friend Ingrid staying for several months on a tiny island. At one level this is a story about all the hard work required to repair and build the nest sites, waiting for the ducks to arrive and then harvesting the eiderdown. That aspect provides a fascinating insight into the whole process. At another deeper level this is a reflection on life in a very remote and challenging environment – how it changes the people, their identity and way of life. The hard physical work is contrasted with the time needed just to wait for the ducks – a time of calm and routine.
James had to build trust with Anna. Could he do the jobs well enough to meet her standards? Anna who initially was not well had to rely on Ingrid and increasingly on James to get the duck houses ready. The bonds between them grow as James listens to Anna’s life story and the importance of the ducks in previous generations and how her family had been relatively wealthy in her youth. Times changed and the art of working with ducks nearly died out. James hears the story of how Anna fought to attract the birds back to the islands.
Whilst the setting and context of this book are different to James’ reflections on farming and rural life in Cumbria there is a thread running through them all. How do those people who have for generations lived off the land find a future in a world that no longer values their efforts. Mechanisation of farming, synthetic materials replacing feather, a modernisation that threatens a way of life for families and communities.
This is a book not just about flocks of ducks but a meditation on how tides – of water, history and experience – shape the worlds we inhabit. A wonderful piece of nature writing and human observation.