A Nest on Lifandoy - by George B. Hill

[TO BUY, please see links at the bottom of this summary.]

This story, set on a small island, is a partly comic, partly poignant tale of wildlife, conscience, past hurt and faith. Timothy Corn, with the help of his gorgeous girlfriend Jessica, is at war with his ideological enemy, his Uncle Wilfred!

[An attractive detailed colour map of the island (also available from a website) helps the reader follow the story.]

Timothy is the assistant warden of the beautiful nature reserve on the (imaginary) little Irish Sea island of Lifandoy, near the Isle of Man. When chance places the reserve under his sole care, Tim struggles to find the nest of a pair of rare birds that he must protect. Yet as he does so, his wildlife faces peril from his next door neighbour, Tim’s Uncle Wilfred. A mocker of Tim’s green politics, he is also both a determined Christian and known throughout the island as a helpful but alarming eccentric.

Uncle Wilfred is also himself searching, with the aid of US Air Force undercover agents, for a lost secret weapon (also called a NEST!). The search coincides with a survey designed to tell Wilfred if he should plough up some of Tim’s nature reserve. Wilfred conspires on both issues against Tim and his helpers, who include Jessica’s scheming small sisters Alice and Rosalind and a cabal of their fellow small schoolgirls.

Confusion is added by the arrival of criminal egg-collectors on the island, and later by an invasion of rare bird ‘twitchers’! Conflict over the rare bird nest eventually leads to unexpected and finally violent consequences.

Yet before that happens, Tim begins to notice very strange behaviour in those close to him, two of whom reveal sides to them he did not expect. Firstly, what shadow hangs over Jessica, and what does it have to do with a certain worn old book in Uncle Wilfred’s cottage kitchen? What decision might Jessica face that will reawaken her suppressed past? Secondly, Uncle Wilfred himself becomes someone whom Tim finds he has to reassess more deeply.

Finally, what will happen when Tim at last faces the occupants of a certain black Volkswagen? Where is Jack Dooley’s missing pet Cocky? What will happen to Tim’s unusual garden gateposts? And where are the rare birds whose nest needs protecting, after all?

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