Listen free for 30 days

Preview
  • Featherhood

  • A Memoir of Two Fathers and a Magpie
  • Written by: Charlie Gilmour
  • Narrated by: Charlie Gilmour
  • Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
  • 5.0 out of 5 stars (3 ratings)

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Featherhood

Written by: Charlie Gilmour
Narrated by: Charlie Gilmour
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $24.27

Buy Now for $24.27

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

In this “vivid...lovely and inviting” (The New York Times) coming-of-age memoir - the “best piece of nature writing since H Is for Hawk (Neil Gaiman) - a young man saves a baby magpie as his estranged father is dying, only to find that caring for the bird saves him.

This is a story of two men who could talk to birds - but were completely incapable of talking to each other.

A father who fled from his family in the dead of night, and the jackdaw he raised like a child.

A son obsessed with his absence - and the young magpie that fell into his path and refused to fly away.

This is a story about the crow family and human family; about repetition across generations and birds that run in the blood; about a terror of repeating the sins of the father and a desire to build a nest of one’s own.

©2021 Charlie Gilmour. All Heathcote Williams’s unpublished writings reproduced by permission of the Estate of Heathcote Williams. © Heathcote Williams 2020. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Orion Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What the critics say

"With his English accent and languid yet expressive voice, author/narrator Charlie Gilmour is charming company. His deep, abiding love for his family is obvious. He adores his wife, Yana - he sounds almost amazed by her - and he finds purpose and healing in caring for their accidental pet, a magpie they name Benzene (for the industrial site where they found the little chick). Although Gilmour describes his childhood as loving and safe, he carries emotional scars from his father, Heathcote Williams, having abandoned him as a baby and having rebuffed Gilmour's periodic efforts to build a relationship. Gilmour dives deep into Heathcote's childhood and failed marriages to face his own mental health challenges. In an odd synchronicity, Heathcote once adopted a jackdaw. In both word and performance, FEATHERHOOD is reflective, poetic, and full of wry bird moments." (AudioFile)

What listeners say about Featherhood

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Intricately woven relationships

A story about a love affair with a magpie, juxtaposed on a tragic affair with a father. Featherhood is a saga of survival, pain, hope, and creation. Avian nature entwined with human emotion, as fragile as a nest.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

fantastic storyteller of his life

I totally loved this book. Charlie's narration of his story is fantastic and what a story to tell. I will read this again and again. the honesty of his relationship with his birth father is quite a tough road.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!