Brings to life the joy of keeping hens and enriches one understanding of them in a beautiful and engaging way. And to be able to walk round a garden full of flowers and chickens with him talking and laughing and sharing stories. 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. Came away with a much deeper understanding of my hens, what they need and how I can improve their lives for the better.

The only problem with this author is you quickly want more, more words, more flowers, more memories, more hens, more thoughts.

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. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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.

It is impossible to easily classify the book in terms of genre: part reflection on the joys of keeping hens, part memoir of the substantial role that chickens have played in Parkinson’s life, part guide to hen keeping, part encyclopedia of the beautiful menagerie of chicken breeds. 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. Arthur Parkinson is the author of The Pottery Gardener and The Flower Yard, and the co-host, with Sarah Raven, of the popular Grow, Cook, Eat, Arrange podcast. Most of us want a dog, or a cat, or a pony when we are young - for Arthur Parkinson, it was always hens. Additional note that this is the most beautiful and satisfying hardback book I now own, the format and texture and every page so well thought through n produced.

It is also the book for people who already keep hens as there is something to learn on almost every page.

We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. A perfectly balanced memoir, hen keeping guide and art/photo exhibition of the joys and realities of keeping hens.