Aquila chrysaetos is the Latin-Greek name for the golden eagle, which opens the first ‘Percy Stewart’ novel, Tunesmith, tinsmith.

Prior to Tunesmith, the plan to spend a lifetime writing had had to simmer on the back-burner ever since he returned from the Pyrenees, in 1976. 

'There at about eleven hundred metres, on a steep slope cloaked by clinging April mists, I first met a wild golden eagle. For a few seconds she stared fearlessly into my eyes, then slipped away into the cloud.'

Close to his current home by the River Tweed, in 2023 Percy Stewart spent many weeks watching a family of ospreys which is fondly observed by Jacques in Pilgrim.

'Having created the character of Jacques in Tunesmith in 2021-2, seven days a week for much of 2023 I immersed myself in the kind of observations which he would make. By sheer good fortune I learned from someone a few miles away that a pair of ospreys had set up home within striking distance of the cottage where I live and write.

'The courage of the female osprey was extraordinary. Sometimes she would patiently watch me for twenty minutes or so, then when she had had enough, take a direct line towards me, screaming at me to go away.

'Had I been anywhere near the nest, this would have been easy to understand, but in fact I was watching through a telescope almost half a mile away!'

Birds of prey play key parts in all three novels, tracing the development of Jacques' character and highlighting the courage of the love of his life, Hetty.

'Hetty is not obviously like a bird, but she paints them from life with exceptional skill.

'The osprey nest is just visible from my bedroom window, so with a short walk I was able to watch the family pretty well every day for over two months. When they eventually left, I finally sat down to write about them.

'Watching for countless hours through the telescope, I was astonished at the similarity between Hetty's brave maternal actions and those of the female osprey. In this way a large part of Pilgrim almost wrote itself.

'As an observer Jacques is very flawed, but much of what he says is quite true. His account of the ospreys is inaccurate in some ways, but the majesty of the birds comes through in the love which he feels for them.

'Because I have always written from first-hand observation and experience, it is remarkably easy to blur the boundary between truth and fiction.  I don't need to invent very much, because people and the wildlife with which we share this planet are endlessly fascinating.'

Earlier this year, Percy Stewart retraced his 1976 steps to research the third volume in the Tunesmith trilogy, Feeding the vultures.

'Returning to live for three months in the Pyrenees strengthened my convictions that the independence of a golden eagle, and of these Tunesmith books, is something to treasure, something worth fighting for!'

'In April someone told me that on the same chain of mountains where I saw the eagle in 1976, nesting high up in a hidden cave there is also a pair of lammergeiers...bearded vultures for a bearded man! That mountain has over a thousand caves, and a few years ago it was home to a she-bear. 

'After being driven to extinction in the French Pyrenees by the start of this century, brown bears have been successfully reintroduced from Slovenia, which will help to restore a natural balance in the Pyrenean ecosystem.

'Bears had already played an important part in Tunesmith, with the obvious connection of Voitek and the Berwick bear, so no doubt they will bear further scrutiny in the final volume of the trilogy...without the awful puns!'

'This June, high up above the Iraty forest, while sleeping completely in the open miles from the nearest human being I came within a short distance of a bear. It found my trail sometime around sunrise, but the only clue was a perfectly fresh calling-card on the footpath less than a hundred feet below where I had been sleeping.

'The hibernation cave was on the next crest of the mountain, with an uninterrupted view over thousands of square miles of forest. By the size and consistency of the bear's dropping, I would say that I had actually stumbled upon a mother and this year's cub.

'Snug in my sleeping-bag as the moon rose over a magnificent snow-capped peak, I knew there was no danger and slept like a baby.

'Fictionalising such experiences feels completely liberating, as if I have grown the wings of the eagle. I love to be in places where Nature rules, so when the Tunesmith Trilogy is complete, and one or two children's stories have finally emerged from hibernation, no doubt wildlife and wild places will feature strongly in the fourth novel.'