Russian revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky was walled up in a fortified house in Mexico City in 1940 in what would prove an unsuccessful attempt to escape Stalin’s assassins. Banished, vilified, in mortal danger and in poor health, Trotsky discovered a surprising source of relaxation and solace: keeping chickens. He spent hours scattering seed and cleaning their coops, which can still be seen in the garden of the house, now a museum.

Today, many people with more workaday cares — the stresses and strains of modern life — are finding that this modest step towards food self-sufficiency is indeed good for the soul. Chickens make soothing companions and there is a simple satisfaction to be found in collecting their warm, just-laid eggs.

Among this new generation of henkeepers is East Oxford-based author Julia Hollander, who five years ago bought a couple of hybrid hens on impulse, as company for her daughter’s rabbit. She readily admits that she did not know what she was letting herself in for and how much she would have to learn.

Her book, Chicken Coops for the Soul: A Henkeeper’s Story is based on her own experiences and those of her chicken-keeping friends. It is thought-provoking for anyone contemplating poultry-rearing, because she describes not only the many pleasures, but also the responsibilities and occasional traumas.

As it is a practical ‘how to’ book, she addresses such questions as which breed to choose, how to feed and house them, protect them from foxes, ward off parasites and diseases, and keep good relations with any neighbours who turn out to be alektorophobic (afraid of, or hostile to hens).

The factual information is leavened with anecdotes about chickens, asides about their role in our culture — including language, music and humour from P G Wodehouse to Spike Milligan— and explanations of why some chickens persistently lay double-yolkers and what causes ‘wobblies’ — irregular in size and shape (prowling foxes, noisy strimmers, and old age, apparently).

Julia also addresses ethical and political questions — most importantly the breakdown of the relationship between humans and animals in an era where food production is distant and industrialised. “The chicken lived alongside humans for thousands of years. But now we only know chickens when they’re oven-ready and I feel that to lose touch with the life that precedes meat before we eat it is a huge loss.” She also explores the breeding of hybrid chickens and the destruction of the rainforest caused by expansion of soya production for protein-rich chicken and other animal feed. She also wrestles with a dilemma — whether to treat chickens as pets, with names and personalities, or as the means of producing eggs and meat. All chickens eventually become too old to lay and the chapter where she works up the courage to kill her hen Ruby describes this distressing rite of passage with stark eloquence. Keeping chickens has taught her daughters Ellie and Bea important life lessons as well as providing them with healthy eggs from happy birds. “I cherish this — that they have these useful pets,” she says. The chickens eat school dinner leftovers, and some of her daughters’ classmates have become interested in them.

Julia is encouraging more people to consider chicken-rearing in collaboration with Barracks Lane Community Garden in East Oxford. For those with unsuitable back gardens, the shady corner of an allotment can be a good place to keep chickens, she says, because chickens eat slugs, snails and excess produce, while their droppings make good compost.

Writing is Julia Hollander’s second career. She was formerly an opera director, having worked at the English National Opera in London, where one of her productions was Janácek’s The Cunning Little Vixen. Today she writes about music instead. Her previous books are When the Bough Breaks: A Mother’s Story (2008), about having a disabled child, and Indian Folk Theatres (2007), based on a long-standing interest in the theatre of the sub-continent.

As well as keeping an entertaining blog about chickens, at www.juliahollander.com, Julia intends to write more in future about other aspects of animal husbandry and food production.

l Chicken Coops for the Soul is published by Guardian Books at £12.99.