“The Place of Tides” By James Rebanks
“The Place of Tides” By James Rebanks
This book is set on a remote Norwegian island, and the author writes about his time on the island helping Anna, an elderly woman, as she works with a friend, to keep alive the centuries old practice of harvesting the down of the eider duck. This is used to make the traditional and extremely valuable eiderdowns. Rebanks is a farmer and shepherd in the Lake District and had contacted Anna, a woman he had met previously, to offer his help on the island as he was feeling overwhelmed with his own life and decided this may help him to find a way forward. He left his wife and children to look after their farm and spent six months on the island, and he writes about everything that happened from early Spring until early Autumn. He writes about watching Anna and her friend prepare nesting areas and shelters to encourage the eider ducks to return to lay their eggs. The ducks line their nests with feathers which they pluck from their chests to keep their eggs warm. When the ducklings hatch and leave the island, the ladies collect the feathers and meticulously prepare them to be sold. Rebanks gains Anna’s trust and she allows him to work with her to undertake the many tasks that need to be done to preserve a way of life that has been passed down the generations. Rebanks learns the value of routine and undertaking purposeful work and the island became a place of reset for him.
The whole group felt the book was beautifully written and was calming and atmospheric and some felt it was a lesson on mindfulness. Anna lived a simple life on the island undertaking daily routines every day in all weathers; she was a guardian of the eider ducks and the island, battling all weathers and predators. Everything she did was essential to preserve this traditional way of life and the story about it gently unfolds throughout the book. Members of the group felt that there were some areas of the different characters that they would have liked to know about but, in the main, the book was well received and, after voting, we gave it an 8 out of 10.