She is also a much-published poet, a critic, and a former lecturer in the history of science at Cambridge University. Helen is a competent falconer who has trained many birds, and has previously written a book about falcons. White, training her goshawk, her grief- are beautifully, inextricably braided. White’s 1951 classic, The Goshawk, which I once called “a book about excruciatingly bad falconry” but also added “the best book on falconry, its feel, its emotions, and its flavor, ever written.” H is for Hawk has better falconry, and ups the ante, weaving in another skein-her grief at the sudden death of her father. It is not only a bird book but a book about T. Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk is the best book on the goshawk yet, and may be the best on falconry from the inside.
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