SOuL Book Club Review – ‘H Is for Hawk’ By Helen MacDonald

What can we say about this book? It’s essential reading for anyone who has the slightest love for and interest in nature and the natural world. Helen Macdonald’s brutally honest memoire about the loss of her Father how she channeled and coped with the grief she felt through training a Goshawk, one of natures most fierce, feral and vicious predators is such a great story.

But then there is the writing, which is just so wonderfully evocative, filled with powerful prose and imagery, to transport you into the spaces, situations, highs and lows she experienced during one of the most challenging tasks imaginable.

I have the physical book version but loved the audible version of it even more. Helen narrates it herself brilliantly and it has, for me, turned a number of long, boring road journeys into pure pleasure. No interest in or knowledge of falconry is required, just immerse yourself in this fabulous book and its lessons in humanity, relationships, grief, loss and obsession.

 

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