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James Rebanks

The Place of Tides

Hay Festival 2025, 

Many years ago, farmer and writer 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. Hers was a centuries-old trade that had once made people rich, but had long been in decline.

Years later, he travelled to the edge of the Arctic to witness her last season on the island. The Place of Tides is his account of that season – the story of a woman in a unique and ancient landscape, and his slow realisation that she and her world were not what he had previously thought.

In conversation with writer, broadcaster, photographer and educator, David Lindo, also known as the Urban Birder.