Helen Macdonald (1) (1970–)

This book is a bit depressing, but I guess if I read reviews before choosing a book, I'd have known that going in. After unexpectedly losing her father, the author decides to add 'goshawk' to the list of birds she has trained--apparently a bird less favored among falconers for it's less tamable, blood-lusty attitude. So the book is a rumination of the parallels between herself; her new bird, Mabel; T. H. White (also a falconer); other authors; and the experiences she has training the bird. I enjoyed how well read she is and learning a bit about falconry, and this is one of the cases where an author reads her own work quite well (surprisingly, in my opinion, many authors don't).… (mere)

I resisted this book for some time, even though it looked interesting, simply because it had become, according to the critics, a 'must-read. I'm now joining the chorus urging everyone who hasn't yet done so, to read it. It's part nature writing - sumptuous, evocative, richly descriptive, each word carefully chosen: part autobiography of a woman overturned by grief at the death of her father; part biography of TH White, author of 'Sword in the Stone' and 'The Goshawk', and so much more; part manual on learning to fly a goshawk - I now now for sure this is something way beyond my capabilities and my patience.

Her misery at her father's death has not enabled her to present him as a vivid character in his own right. But her portrait of the painful life of White is a fascinating one, and likely to make me re-discover books I haven't read since I was a teenager. Likewise, her picture of the countryside of Cambridgeshire makes it seem more rewarding than I had previously thought. I remained fascinated by her descriptions of training Mabel, her hawk, and her musings on her relationship with her, and the feelings of both of them towards the bird's prey.

Her own miseries were harder to understand, and finally somewhat wearied me. But this is a splendid book for the richness of its prose, and the chance it offers to see two wholly unknown worlds: that of the falconer, and that of TH White.… (mere)