For millennia we have tried to explain ourselves using the raven as a symbol It occupies a unique place in British history & has left an indelible mark on our cultural landscape The raven's hulking black shape has come to represent many things death all-seeing power the underworld & a wildness that remains deep within us Legend has it that the fate of the nation rests upon the raven & should the resident birds ever leave the Tower of London then the entire kingdom will fall While so much of our wildlife is vanishing ravens are returning to their former habitats after centuries of exile moving back from their outposts at the very edge of the country to the city streets from which they once scavenged the bodies of the dead In A Shadow Above Joe Shute follows ravens across their new hunting grounds examining our complicated & challenging relationship with these birds He meets people who live alongside the raven in conflict & peace unpicks their fierce intelligence & ponders what the raven's successful return might come to symbolise for humans in the dark times we now inhabit