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
Common blackbird dark Places about it", and it symbolised resignation in the 17th century tragic play "The Duchess of Malfi"; an alternate connotation is vigilance, the bird's clear cry warning of danger. The common blackbird is the national bird of Sweden, which has a breeding population of 1–2 million pairs, and was featured on a 30 öre Christmas postage stamp in 1970; it has also featured on a number of other stamps issued by European and Asian countries, including a 1966 4d British stamp and a 1998 Irish 30p stamp. This bird—arguably—also gives rise to the Serbian name for Kosovo, which is