Magpies

My new book The Lost Child of Chernobyl, to be published in April 2021, features two magpies in supporting roles.

Magpies like other members of the Corvid family, represent many things. They are seen as harbingers of death, as well as symbols of good or bad fortune. Everywhere there are magpies people attach special powers to them.

For early Christians the magpie was a symbol of vanity, cursed for not wearing completely black plumage in mourning after the Crucifixion. In China and Korea it was a symbol of joy, heralding the arrival of good news and welcome visitors. In Scandinavia some witches rode magpies or even turned into them.

From childhood, like most people I was familiar with a nursery version of the traditional rhyme…

One for sorrow, two for mirth,

Three for a wedding, four for a birth,

Five for silver, six for gold,

Seven for a secret not to be told,

Eight for Heaven, nine for Hell,

And ten for the Devil’s own self.

but I had never heard of another superstition involving magpies until travelling with a younger colleague some years ago. She was careful to always salute a solitary magpie to ward off bad luck… the correct procedure is to say “Hello Mr. Magpie. How is Mrs. Magpie and all the little Magpies?”

An illustration from my new book featuring magpie characters, due for publication in April 2021

But what’s the reality, as opposed to the mythology of the magpie?

Like most of the crow family, magpies were heavily persecuted in the UK by gamekeepers and numbers dropped. Now they are familiar sight once again, although they are hated by many people for taking the eggs and nestlings of small garden birds. However, their main diet in summer is invertebrates such as beetles, flies, caterpillars, spiders, worms and leatherjackets. In winter they eat wild fruits, berries and grains, scavenged household scraps or roadside carrion. When there is plenty of food, magpies will hoard some in holes in the ground, or even in gutters and crevices in buildings.

The magpie’s reputation for stealing shiny objects has been disproved by scientific tests, but they are naturally inquisitive and highly intelligent. They are one of the few species that can recognize their own image in a mirror.

So why did I choose magpies to feature in my new children’s story? Because when it comes to the relationship between people and wild animals, the crow family seem to be unique. Their ability to ‘see’ and communicate with individual people is said by many, to be unlike any other bird family. They will harbour a grudge against a human enemy for many years, yet when a human ‘friend’ is unhappy and will attempt to comfort them. I would love to have the opportunity to befriend a magpie.

But as for the story, I wanted to include a creature that is surrounded with meaning and superstition in many countries of the world. The Magpie can signify both bad and good luck, and in reality it can live with humans in a relationship that can transend the normal human animal bond. My magpies are not anthropomorphic because they don’t need to be made more human to make them meaningful characters.

They are magpies.