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An Amazon Best Book of the Month for March 2015: When naturalist and falconer Helen Macdonald lost her beloved father, she “thought [her] world was ending.” Seems apropos, then, that her journey from crippling grief to something resembling grace is on the wings of another deadly bird of prey--the notoriously prickly, and murderous, goshawk. In H Is for Hawk, you will meet Mabel, not your typical bloodthirsty specimen, as she is trained to hunt like the goshawks of yore. It is this brash, slightly mad undertaking that wrenches Macdonald free from despair, and brings her to a place where she can begin again. Doesn’t sound like your kind of thing? You’d be surprised. Macdonald’s gorgeously wrought prose holds you in thrall from the first page, and provides something akin to the escape, and salvation, that nature provides her. In ‘Hawk’ you will also learn about the famed Arthurian novelist T.H. White, a kindred soul to Macdonald in certain ways. One of the things that endeared him to her was his “childish delight” with all things wild, something you’ll be hard-pressed not to experience as soon as you tap into this tome. –Erin Kodicek
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Book Description Condition: new. (Hardcover, 2014). (2014) undated reprint of 2014 US edition. 8vo (145 x 267mm). Ppx,300. Not illustrated. Dark tan cloth-backed boards, spine titled in gilt. Fine new unread copy in dust-wrapper. This is the winner of the 2014 Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction. Already reprinted many times and constantly in demand. "As a child Helen Macdonald was determined to become a falconer. She learned the terminology and read all the classic books, including T.H. White's masterpiece, The Goshawk. She worked in falconry and raptor conservation for many years before becoming a historian of science. But when her father dies and she is knocked sideways by grief, she becomes obsessed with the idea of training her own goshawk." "She collects a female gos from a Scottish quayside and takes her home to Cambridge. Then she fills the freezer with hawk food and unplugs her phone, ready to embark on the difficult, ancient business of manning and training the hawk." "To train a hawk you must watch it like a hawk, and so gain the ability to predict what it will do next. Eventually you don't see the hawk's body language at all. You seem to feel what it feels. The hawk's apprehension becomes your own. As the days passed and I put myself in the hawk's wild mind to tame her, my humanity was burning away." MacDonald also discusses T.H. White and some aspects of the pre- and post-war falconry scene, providing an interesting counterpoint to the impassioned self-reflection of the remainder of the book. PREVIOUS PRICE £20.00. Seller Inventory # 53181
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