The Feather Thief

Johnson details how Edwin first gained access to the bird specimens at the British Museum of Natural History in Tring. While his studies at the Royal Academy of Music kept Edwin busy, he still felt drawn to fly-tying. He was invited to the Bristol Fly Dresses’ Guild in 2008 where he met Terry, a prominent British fly tier. He lamented to Terry, ahead of the meeting, that he did not have any materials with him. Edwin was concerned that customs would confiscate his materials, especially the rare bird feathers. Edwin was looking for ways to build rebuild his materials collection stating, “Life without tying is fairly harsh, but having a fortune in feathers confiscated by customs would be worse” (87). Despite using substitute feathers, Edwin still amazed the fly-tiers who attended the demonstration in Bristol.

Edwin’s initial attempts to find feathers were unsuccessful. His thoughts kept returning to Couturier’s email. Edwin decided that he wanted to see the Tring bird specimens collection for himself. However, only researchers and articles with appointments could access the collection. To gain access, Edwin lied: “Edwin e-mailed the museum under his own name, saying that a friend at Oxford who was working on a dissertation on