The Company of Owls

By: Polly Atkin

Published by Milkweed Editions, 2026-02-03

Longlisted for the 2025 Wainwright Prize in Nature Writing

An observant, lyrical memoir exploring what owls can teach us about nature, chronic illness, and ourselves--so long as we are quiet enough to listen.

"Let me tell you about my neighbors, the owls," writes Polly Atkin in this love letter to the clutch of tawny owlets residing near her home in the heart of England's Lake District. Circumscribed by a chronic illness to her cottage and the surrounding area, she turns to the trees and the animals among them for companionship--especially the owl siblings who surprise and delight her. As Atkin watches the owls grow from curious fledglings into sleek raptors, she contemplates the act of survival and our place within it: When should a human intervene? When should nature take its course? What do the owls know that we do not?

The owls encourage her to think differently about solitude and community, individuality and belonging, rest and retreat. And with them as her companions, she weighs the many types of company we keep--in our relationships, in the darkness, and in our entanglement with the digital world that connects us across continents.

A call to find joy in unexpected places, The Company of Owls teaches us to listen when all around us seems like clamor and noise.