Helen Macdonald

H Is for Hawk

1. IDEA 1

   Grief led her to a hawk

   Macdonald, a writer and historian, describes how after her father's sudden death she decided to train a goshawk, a fierce bird of prey. The book combines memoir, nature writing and biography.

2. IDEA 2

   She trained Mabel

   Macdonald describes the slow, intense process of training her goshawk, Mabel. The bird's wildness absorbed her. In her account, the training demanded patience, quiet and constant attention, and she found herself matching the bird's moods and rhythms.

3. IDEA 3

   Grief reshaped her

   Macdonald describes how grief made her withdraw from people and identify with the hawk. In her account, after her father's death she turned away from people, and the hawk's single-minded focus seemed to offer relief from her pain.

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