Tower Bridge is hunched up ahead, with HMS Belfast reliably anchored on the River to the south. Past the Chapel and the Waterloo Barracks and out onto Tower Green and there’s that proper morning smell of London, that mixture of exhaust fumes, the Thames, fresh ground coffee, and the beautiful sweet incongruous smell of fresh-cut grass on Tower Green. Behind that stand the Cheesegrater and the Walkie-Talkie and the Gherkin, the big new skyscrapers with their funny little nicknames.

I see the old Port of London Authority Building, which is now home to a fancy hotel, but was once responsible for the comings and goings of ships all the way up and down the Thames. I hurry up the stone spiral staircase by the Flint Tower, the London skyline bright with lights and winking behind me. There’s that hum-the sound of the city awakening. Tower Bridge Road, Fenchurch Street, London Bridge. I can already hear the lorries and the white vans and the early morning commuters coming into town. And if things go wrong, things can go badly wrong. There’s always that niggling concern that something might have gone wrong overnight.

I get dressed in the dark and head straight out the door. Shining a light on the behavior of the birds, their pecking order and social structure, and the tricks they play on us, Skaife shows who the Tower’s true guardians really are-and the result is a compelling and irreverent narrative that will surprise and enchant. In The Ravenmaster, he lets us in on his life as he feeds his birds raw meat and biscuits soaked in blood, buys their food at Smithfield Market, and ensures that these unusual, misunderstood, and utterly brilliant corvids are healthy, happy, and ready to captivate the four million tourists who flock to the Tower every year.Ī rewarding, intimate, and inspiring partnership has developed between the ravens and their charismatic and charming human, the Ravenmaster, who shares the folklore, history, and superstitions surrounding the ravens and the Tower. The title of Ravenmaster, therefore, is a serious title indeed, and after decades of serving the Queen, Yeoman Warder Christopher Skaife took on the added responsibility of caring for the infamous ravens. The ravens at the Tower of London are of mighty importance: rumor has it that if a raven from the Tower should ever leave, the city will fall. The first behind-the-scenes account of life with the legendary ravens at the world’s eeriest monument

The Ravenmaster by Christopher Skaife