Place of Tides – Rebanks James (2025)

Many years ago, James Rebanks met an old woman on a remote Norwegian island. She lived and worked alone on a tiny rocky outcrop, caring for wild eider ducks and gathering their down, continuing a centuries-old trade that had once made men and women rich but had long been in decline. Back home, Rebanks could not stop thinking about the fierce, otherworldly woman who nevertheless seemed strangely familiar. Years later, he wrote to ask whether he could return. Her health was failing, so she invited him to come quickly, with work clothes and good boots. He travelled to the edge of the Arctic to witness her final season on the island. This is the story of that season, the unique and ancient landscape, and the woman who brought it back to life. It follows the pattern of her work from the harsh, isolated labour of winter to the elation of endless summer light, when the birds leave behind their precious down to be gathered like feathered gold. Slowly, Rebanks begins to understand that the woman and her world are not what he had thought. What begins as a journey of escape becomes an extraordinary lesson in self-knowledge and forgiveness.