March 2026

Before we had duvets, we had eiderdowns and as the name suggests they were filled with the precious down that female Eider Ducks pluck from their breasts to line their precious nests. James Rebanks in a departure from his usual texts on English farming practises and also somewhat mentally exhausted, spends the Spring and Summer with an elderly woman called Anna and her friend Ingrid. Anna is one of the last remaining Duck Women – part of an ancient traditional practise that takes place every year on a tiny crag of a remote island off Norway and just below the…