{"product_id":"blackie-co","title":"Blackie \u0026 Co.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom Marginalian Editions comes a profound meditation on our capacity for connection with other creatures.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the savage winter of 1962—Europe’s coldest in eighty years—a blackbird began roosting in the elderberry tree in Hockley Clarke’s overgrown garden. Clarke, a retired headmaster and lifelong birder, named him “Blackie” and began bringing the bird food every morning and evening. Soon, the blackbird was flying down to greet him with “a few glad chuckles,” and a quiet and extraordinary friendship began.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFirst published in 1978, \u003ci\u003eBlackie \u0026amp; Co.\u003c\/i\u003e is Clarke’s engaging chronicle of the blackbird family that took up residence in his backyard. What starts as a record of daily feedings and weather reports deepens into a lucid, moving reflection on attention, connection, and the limits of empathy across species. “I spoke to him; he knew my voice and I am sure that he answered in his own language,” Clarke writes. “There was perfect trust between us, a source of joy to me, and it must have been a comfort to him.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn Clarke’s modest, reverent words, readers will find a kindred spirit to Gilbert White and Helen Macdonald: a naturalist who sees wild creatures not as symbols or scenery, but as beings with their own inner lives, worthy of our care and awe. With a foreword by Maria Popova, \u003ci\u003eBlackie \u0026amp; Co.\u003c\/i\u003e is a forgotten classic of uncommon grace—a reminder that love, in all its forms, is made not of sentiment, but of sympathy, patience, and shared time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57510000886133,"sku":"9781961341722","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781961341722.jpg?v=1787130218","url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/blackie-co","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}