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A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings

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A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings

By: Helen Jukes
Narrated by: Jane Collingwood
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Buy Now for £10.76

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About this listen

 'This book has found a special place in my heart. It’s as strange, beautiful and unexpected, as precise and exquisite in its movings, as bees in a hive. I loved it' HELEN MACDONALD, author of H IS FOR HAWK

A fascinating, insightful and inspiring account of a novice beekeeper's year of keeping honeybees, which will appeal to readers of H is For Hawk and The Outrun

Entering her thirties, Helen Jukes feels trapped in an urban grind of office politics and temporary addresses – disconnected, stressed. Struggling to settle into her latest job and home in Oxford, she realises she needs to effect a change if she’s to create a meaningful life for herself, one that can accommodate comfort and labour and love. Then friends give her the gift of a colony of honeybees – according to folklore, bees freely given bring luck – and Helen embarks on her first full year of beekeeping. But what does it mean to ‘keep’ wild creatures? In learning about the bees, what can she learn of herself? And can travelling inside the hive free her outside it?

As Helen grapples with her role in the delicate, awe-inspiring ecosystem of the hive, the very act of keeping seems to open up new perspectives, deepen friendships old and new, and make her world come alive. A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings is at once a fascinating exploration of the honeybee and the hive, the practices of honey-gathering and the history of our observation of bees; and a beautifully wrought meditation on responsibility and care, on vulnerability and trust, on forging bonds and breaking new ground.

Critic reviews

'This book has found a special place in my heart. It’s as strange, beautiful and unexpected, as precise and exquisite in its movings, as bees in a hive. I loved it'
(Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk)
All stars
Most relevant
Hooked from the start. loved the way the writer interlinked the bees and her relationship to them to her own life. Also loved the input from the OED.

BEE-utiful book

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as a beekeeper I found the information about beekeeping correct and learnt quite a few new facts.Though I do like the idea of the premise I struggled to relate to the main protagonist.

informative but couldn't relate to the narrator

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I appreciated that the information about bees and beekeeping we’re intertwined within a story. Also, that beekeeping was not romanticised.

Entertaining and informative

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Loved it, really simple and lovely to listen to with some beautiful wisdom thrown it, plus I learnt so much about bees which is what I needed:) Will listen to it again sometime soon.

Learnt so much about bees 🐝

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A wonderful and languorous tale of how bees can change your view of the world.

Beautiful

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