H is for Hawk

H is for Hawk: The Sunday Times bestseller and Costa and Samuel Johnson Prize Winner

Non-Fiction, Languages & Reference, Dictionaries & Reference, Natural World & Environment, Nature Writing
Paperback Published on: 26/02/2015
In stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 working days
Make and edit your lists in your account
Check click & collect stock near you
Collect today: Pay in shop

Bookseller Reviews

View all
H is for Hawk
Flashes of beauty
If you have ever, trudging through a country fete or market town craft fair, suddenly quailed under the haughty disdain of a bird of prey being displayed, ... READ MORE
Ruth at Canterbury
H is for Hawk
Deeply moving
H is for Hawk is an exploration of grief and finding the light in nature and perseverance.
Manon Divet

Synopsis

Winner of the Costa Book of the Year

Winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction

'I can't remember the last time a book made me feel so many different things in such quick succession.' - Rachel Cooke, The Guardian

As a child, Helen Macdonald was determined to become a falconer, learning the arcane terminology and reading all the classic books. Years later, when her father died and she was struck deeply by grief, she became obsessed with the idea of training her own goshawk.

She bought Mabel for £800 on a Scottish quayside and took her home to Cambridge, ready to embark on the long, strange business of trying to train this wildest of animals.

H is for Hawk is an unflinchingly honest account of Macdonald's struggle with grief during the difficult process of the hawk's taming and her own untaming.

This is a book about memory, nature and nation, and how it might be possible to reconcile death with life and love.

  • Publisher: Vintage Publishing
  • ISBN: 9780099575450
  • Number of pages: 320
  • Weight: 258g
  • Dimensions: 198 x 131 x 21 mm

Customer Reviews

View all
H is for Hawk
Sublime, transforming memoir of loss
Some of my favourite books have been memoirs of a challenging relationship with an animal - Jane Shilling's Fox in the Cupboard, Gavin Maxwell's otter oeuv... READ MORE
Roz Morris
H is for Hawk
Harrowing, uneasy, and a thing of profound beauty
This profound book moved me deeply. It’s a searching examination of loss and identity, told via the vehicle of the author’s relationship with the goshawk s... READ MORE
Glen Clymo
H is for Hawk
A beautiful read
I have been totally blown away by Helen McDonald’s stunning book. As someone who usually plumps for fantasy this has introduced me to whole new genre that ... READ MORE
Andrew Moores
H is for Hawk
I must be reading a different book
A very average book , a real drag. With all the good reviews I was expecting a lot more than this. There are much better, KINDER ,books to read about birds... READ MORE
Kurde @Horsham
H is for Hawk
AN UPLIFTING BOOK!
This book is both an interesting and easily digestible entry into the the arcane world of falconry and a chronicle of the writer's attempt to deal with the... READ MORE
PETER SOMERFIELD