The Heart of the Valley point for writing the novel. It was also based on the nature in the valley where he lived. The Heart of the Valley The Heart of the Valley is a novel by British author Nigel Hinton. It was first published in 1986 and was his first and to date only book written for adults. The story focuses on the nature of an English valley especially the dunnocks. In the winter a female dunnock left her territory to find food and came to the front garden of Brook Cottage where other birds were also feeding from the bird table. That evening
The Bird 'Grip' ever after. While the hero in these stories is normally aided by a talking animal, for it to be a ghost is unusual. This is the grateful dead, a common folklore motif, found also in "Fair Brow". The Bird 'Grip' The Bird 'Grip' is a Swedish fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it "The Pink Fairy Book". It is Aarne-Thompson type 550, the quest for the golden bird/firebird; other tales of this type include "The Golden Bird", "The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener", "How Ian Direach got the Blue Falcon", "The Nunda, Eater of People", and "Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire