H is for Hawk
by
Helen MacDonald
 |
| Jonathan Cape 2014 |
From the age of seven, Helen Macdonald was determined to
become a falconer. She learned the arcane terminology and read all the classic
books, including TH White’s tortured masterpiece, The Goshawk, which describes
White’s struggle to train a hawk as a spiritual contest. When her father dies
and she is knocked sideways by grief, she becomes obsessed with the idea of
training her own goshawk. She buys Mabel for £800 on a Scottish quayside and
takes her home to Cambridge. Then she fills the freezer with hawk food and
unplugs the phone, ready to embark on the long, strange business of trying to
train this wildest of animals.
About the author
Helen Macdonald is a writer,
poet, illustrator, historian and affiliate at the Department of History and
Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. Her books include Falcon
(2006) and Shaler’s Fish (2001). H is for Hawk won the 2014 Samuel Johnson
Prize for Non-Fiction.
*~*~*
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for taking the time to comment - Jaffareadstoo appreciates your interest.