Chicken Boy: My Life With Hens

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This is for more than that, lovely narrative and packed with information that’s given in a warm and friendly way. But the quiet fulfilment of keeping hens became his sanctuary, a tonic for mental and physical health, a connection with his family and the natural world. With delightful anecdotes, practical insights, and a dash of humour, this book celebrates the simple pleasures of connecting with nature and the enchantment that comes from sharing your life with these feathered friends.

This hugely informative, joyful and amusing book has me desperately wondering and hoping that I could, after all, find space in my small garden for a few chickens. As a life-long aviculturist, I laud this book for everything it offers, including the exercise of conscience and strategic engagement with the keeping of poultry. Arthur Parkinson is well known for his flamboyant garden designs, and this book includes many of his own drawings and photographs with his ‘girls’, alongside lots of practical hen keeping advice.Brings to life the joy of keeping hens and enriches one understanding of them in a beautiful and engaging way. Illustrated with Arthur’s own characterful watercolours and photographs of his ‘girls’, and laden with practical hen-keeping tips, gardening advice and introductions to common, rare and pure breeds, Chicken Boy is a one-of-a-kind memoir of a life in nature. And to be able to walk round a garden full of flowers and chickens with him talking and laughing and sharing stories. Came away with a much deeper understanding of my hens, what they need and how I can improve their lives for the better.

Join Arthur Parkinson as he shares his journey of raising chickens and finding joy in his feathery companions. Arthur Parkinson is an English author, Gardener, photographer, illustrator and farm animal rights campaigner, originally from Nottinghamshire where he still spends much of his time between living also in Gloucestershire. It also made me realise that I am not in a position to get chickens and that to get them would be entirely for my own pleasure and that is not the point. It is also the book for people who already keep hens as there is something to learn on almost every page.

Would love to have chickens but not enough space unfortunately and having read this book I would want only the best for my chickens! I really enjoyed this book and can also highly recommend his previous books The Flower Yard and The Pottery Gardener. I have neither inclination nor conducive circumstances to raise chickens anytime soon (although I generally enjoy reading about agrarian life and have always been fond of chickens), but Chicken Boy ranks among my favorite reads in recent memory. He has written several books on gardening most notably The Flower Yard and his first book on chickens is due out at Easter 2022. His writing and photography are regularly featured in the Daily Telegraph, and have appeared in The Times, Country Life and Country Living, among other magazines and newspapers; he has also featured in BBC Two's Gardeners' World.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Kudos to the publisher for creating a book that feels special and high quality, with a gorgeous cover design and color scheme that complement Parkinson’s top notch chicken illustrations and photographs, which are included on at least every other page and add so much to the experience of the book.To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. I have found my tribe' Most of us want a dog, or a cat, or a pony when we are young - for Arthur Parkinson, it was always hens. Although it might seem like a book on hen keeping would appeal to only a niche audience, I feel confident that most readers would thoroughly enjoy it. The only problem with this author is you quickly want more, more words, more flowers, more memories, more hens, more thoughts.

Parkinson’s gentle, passionate voice shines through his writing, which is unpretentious and accessible. Most of us want a dog, or a cat, or a pony when we are young - for Arthur Parkinson, it was always hens.A perfectly balanced memoir, hen keeping guide and art/photo exhibition of the joys and realities of keeping hens. His writing and photography are regularly featured in the Daily Telegraph , and have appeared in The Times , Country Life and Country Living , among other magazines and newspapers; he has also featured in BBC Two's Gardeners' World . If the initial age verification is unsuccessful, we will contact you asking you to provide further information to prove that you are aged 18 or over. The whole point of this book is to build a generous, nurturing relationship with the natural world and to rebalance things in favour of a world of we have so long taken from and not given back to. From the local allotments and his nan's back garden, to Chatsworth and an unlikely friendship with the late Duchess of Devonshire, a famous hen-keeper, Chicken Boy tells the story of the love and satisfaction to be found in caring for living things.