We’re excited to announce the Ornithological Waterstones Landing Service, a brand new way to receive your favourite books.

O.W.L.S. consists of a fleet of specially trained owls that, either working individually or as an adorable team, will be able to deliver your package within thirty minutes of you placing your order.

Watch our Press Manager Jon Owls introduce the O.W.L.S. project.

Putting O.W.L.S. into commercial use will take a number of years as it takes ages to train owls to do anything and we only just thought of it this morning.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Isn’t this just what they did in Harry Potter?

A: Yes, this is exactly what they did in Harry Potter. You’re asking that as if this is a bad thing.

Q: Won't this be really expensive?

A: No, it'll only cost you £2.75 per parcel. (Price subject to inflation between now and the as yet undisclosed point in the future when we will launch the service.)

Q: Will we one day see a fleet of Waterstones’ owls in the sky?

A: Yes! And it’s going to be amazing.

Q: Will the owls be treated humanely?

A: Yes! Our owls will be loved by specially trained booksellers who will regularly feed the owls with love, affection and mice.

Q: Isn’t this how Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds began?

A: The Birds is fiction, this is the real world. Everything will be fine.

Q: But aren’t you worried about the owls developing intelligence and using the knowledge of our home addresses to enact some sort of sky-based revenge? Enslaving us all to deliver their internet orders to their nests?

A: No, the laws of robotics means that this can never happen. The owls will be incapable of harming a human.

Q: But owls aren’t robots, they’re birds.

A: That’s the end of the questions, thank you.

While you're waiting for O.W.L.S. to be launched - why not take advantage of our Reserve & Collect service which lets you choose a book online and pick it up at your local Waterstones bookshop.