IRISH TIMES - Saturday, August 16, 2008
"This book should not work, but it does, marvellously well too..... A number of qualities make this unlikely book such a triumph"

THE TELEGRAPH - "Magpies are legendarily aggressive and thieving, the embodiment of evil. So why would anyone adopt a fallen fledgling? In this extract from her book, Esther Woolfson shares her house with Spike and tests his species' fearsome reputation."

THE OBSERVER - Sunday August 24 2008
"Blake found a world in a grain of sand; it seems Woolfson has managed the same trick with a rook."