I confess that had The Language of Birds by Jill Dawson not been my book group read for August, I’d never have heard of it! I’m very glad I have now and am delighted to share my review today. 

The Language of Birds was published by Sceptre in paperback on 16th April 2020 and is available for purchase in all formats here.

The Language of Birds

Drawing on the infamous Lord Lucan affair, this compelling novel explores the roots of a shocking murder from a fresh perspective and brings to vivid life an era when women’s voices all too often went unheard. 

In the summer of 1974, Mandy River arrives in London to make a fresh start and begins working as nanny to the children of one Lady Morven. She quickly finds herself in the midst of a bitter custody battle and the house under siege: Lord Morven is having his wife watched. According to Lady Morven, her estranged husband also has a violent streak, yet she doesn’t seem the most reliable witness. Should Mandy believe her? 

As Mandy edges towards her tragic fate, her friend Rosemary watches from the wings – an odd girl with her own painful past and a rare gift. This time, though, she misreads the signs.

My Review of The Language of Birds

Based on the infamous story of Lord Lucan.

I loved The Language of Birds. The events upon which the story is based have been fictionalised compellingly and convincingly, making for a totally riveting read. The historical social and cultural references create a vivid and authentic setting with class hierarchy examined to perfection. I thought Jill Dawson’s style was sophisticated, beautiful, slightly mystical and both firmly concrete and wispily ethereal. This is a really intense read that has been assiduously researched and fine tuned into a mesmerising story.

The plot is excellent, thoroughly engaging the reader, regardless of whether the Lord Lucan story is known. In The Language of Birds Jill Dawson creates a sense of mystery and menace as she weaves a dual first person narrative for Rosemary and third person for Mandy. This works so well because it uncovers the way one person or event can look very different to different people. As a result, readers find their own perceptions heightened and questioned.

Both Rosemary and Mandy are multi-faceted and so believable. Their hopes, dreams, mental health, their mistakes and their triumphs create real, flawed people the reader absolutely cares about. In many ways, The Language of Birds is a feminist narrative that explores the chasm between the attitudes to men and women in the era of the setting. With the unstable Katharine in a coercive and troubling marriage, the attitudes of men, of the media and of other women towards her, lay bare the ways we are conditioned by our upbringing and societal expectation. Sadly, so much of this is still relevant in today’s society so that The Language of Birds feels fresh and pertinent. 

Dickie too is layered and so provocative. He obviously has severe mental health issues and yet it is impossible to feel the empathy towards him that is evoked by Rosemary. Through Dickie Jill Dawson provides insight into domestic physical and emotional violence and yet there’s nothing gratuitous or extraneous in any of the events she describes. I found this enormously powerful.

The Language of Birds is quite brilliant. It’s wonderfully entertaining, but it’s also thought provoking and, I feel, important. I was totally absorbed by reading it and cannot recommend it enough. 

About Jill Dawson

Born in Durham, Jill Dawson grew up in Yorkshire. She has won prizes for poetry, short stories and fiction and held many Fellowships, including the Creative Writing Fellowship at the University of East Anglia, where she taught on the MA in Creative Writing course. In 2006 she received an honorary doctorate in recognition of her work and in 2020 became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She lives in an eco house designed by her husband the architect Meredith Bowles in the Cambridgeshire Fens. She runs Gold Dust a mentoring scheme for writers that you’ll find here.

You can follow Jill on Twitter/X @JDawsonwriter, and find her on Instagram.