About the book: 1964 / From the author: ...The book "The Verney Rooks" took a long time to write, more than two years. Its heroes still exist today, studying and working in their Nest - in the mountains of Savoy. Since the book was published, a lot has changed among the rooks. They built a new good house, the older rooks grew up and went off to a big independent life, but many of those you recognize here - Claire Damien, Vitamin, Etienne - remained in the Nest to raise those who replaced them. Recently I received a letter from Mother, drawings of rooks, a magazine they publish, and a beautiful, colored calendar. “There is still a lot of poverty, grief, injustice in the world,” Mother wrote to me, “now we are raising children whom the world has made orphans or neglected. Our elders help me: they remember the days of the war and understand what human grief is. And they try, like me, to make our new chicks happy».