- Published: 10 February 2015
- ISBN: 9780099575450
- Imprint: Vintage
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 320
- RRP: $22.99
H is for Hawk
A BBC2 Between the Covers pick
- Published: 10 February 2015
- ISBN: 9780099575450
- Imprint: Vintage
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 320
- RRP: $22.99
This beautiful book is at once heartfelt and clever in the way it mixes elegy with celebration: elegy for a father lost, celebration of a hawk found - and in the finding also a celebration of countryside, forbears of one kind and another, life-in-death. At a time of very distinguished writing about the relationship between human kind and the environment, it is immediately pre-eminent.
Andrew Motion
Nature-writing, but not as you know it. Astounding.
Bookseller
I'm convinced it's going to be an absolute classic of nature writing.
Nick Barley, Guardian
Astounding.
Bookseller
A talon-sharp memoir that will thrill and chill you to the bone... Fascinating.
Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday
Beautiful.
Sport
Vivid and fascinating.
James Attlee, Independent
Soars beyond genres, and burns with emotional and intellectual intensity.
Nature
A soaring triumph.
Christian House, Daily Telegraph
A soliloquy that sings from the pages. Truly beautiful.
Rufus the Hawk, Twitter
Heartbreaking.
Grazia
Macdonald makes nature writing new.
For Books Sake
Unusual and incredibly moving.
Twin Magazine
A masterpiece.
Metro, Patricia Nicol
Big-hearted, joyful and blazing with gorgeous descriptions of nature, H is for Hawk is an unusual but very special memoir.
Good Housekeeping
Lyrical, headlong, humourous.
Iain Finlayson, New Statesman
As phenomenal, unusual, moving and agile as a fearsome bird of prey.
Monocle
An elegant, disturbing and heart-warming book.
Wharfedale Observer
A brilliantly beautiful evocation which interweaves her experiences as an austringer, a grieving daughter, an academic and simply a human being.
Allen Sleith, Belfast Telegraph
Destined to be a nature classic.
Bath Magazine
It is moving and personal in a way that few books of this kind are.
Gabriel Smith, Cotswold Life
H is for Hawk is a mature, accomplished work: a touchstone for future memoirs, bibliomemoirs, and writing that deals with the natural environment and the self.
The Times Literary Supplement
Beautifully written and interposed with literary references, it will captivate book lovers and bird lovers alike.
Catriona Gray, House and Garden
Likely to leave a lasting impression.
Scotland Outdoors
This is an encounter with a bird many of us only dream of seeing in the wild, so read this and fill a void.
John Miles, Bird Watching
H is for Hawk deserves its acclaim as a classic of its kind.
David Sexton, Evening Standard
A great read.
Western Morning News
Never has the eye of a raptor assumed such fearful, beautiful meaning.
Philip Hoare, New Statesman
It really has been a privilege to read this book.
Dovegreyreader scribbles (blog)
Although grief is the engine of the story, its most exceptional aspect is the beauty and force of its descriptions of birds and landscape, and its real star is the goshawk.
Paul Laity, Guardian
The winner of this year's Samuel Johnson Prize is one of the most captivating books I've read.
Lucy Scholes, Independent
It is in no way a misery memoir. It is uplifting, poetic, exhilarating.
Jackie Kay, Scotsman
What makes the book outstanding is the beauty of her prose. It rightly won the prize.
Alan Johnson, Mail on Sunday
Emphatically my book of the year.
John Lister-Kay, Scotsman
I have never read anything that evokes the strange and broken landscape of bereavement more accurately.
Alexandra Blakemore, Times Higher Education
Ultimately uplifting about the power of life, this has to be one of the best books of the year.
Bob Johnstone, Newstalk
It is a timeless classic that leaves you wondering how you did without it before.
Paul McNamee, Big Issue
Wonderful.
Bel Mooney, Daily Mail
The book is unforgettable.
Michael McCarthy, Independent
I can't remember the last time a book made me feel so many different things in such quick succession.
Rachel Cooke, Guardian
Her book is so good that, at times, it hurt me to read it. It draws blood, in ways that seem curative.
Dwight Garner, New York Times
Macdonald writes poignantly but avoids sentimentality on taking her reader on this journey of discovery and ultimately of liberation
Good Book Guide
Both sad and beautiful
Kate Phelan, Vogue
poetic and intriguing
Louise Elliott, Living Magazine
H is for Hawk, her memoir of loss, writing, recovery and nature, drawing ingeniously on the life and work of T.H. White, covered this territory with ferocious honesty and eloquence
Sarah Ditum, Spectator
Combines lyrical nature writing with moving introspection.
Radio Times
Fiercely, grippingly brilliant.
James Macdonald, The Sunday Times
A lyrical, moving probe into both the process of mourning and our relationship with the natural world.
Martin Chilton, Olivia Petter and Ceri Radford, Independent, *Books of the Decade*