H is for Hawk

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*