Book Review - H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

H is for Hawk is a beautifully crafted account of grief, loss and recovery. The book takes you through Macdonald’s struggle to comprehend the loss of her father, she perfectly sums up the incredulity that accompanies a bereavement when life continues around you ’planes still landed, cars still drove, people still shopped’. 

Shattered by his death Macdonald becomes preoccupied with the thought of training her own Goshawk. What ensues is a narrative of blood, sweat and tears as Macdonald takes on the challenge to train a hawk that, although regarded by many as the ultimate hunting bird, is also regarded as the hardest to train being ‘prone to sulk in trees’.

It is candid narrative of the author’s all-consuming grief and struggle with her mental wellbeing as the strain of sorrow and the drive required to train Mabel the goshawk become at times overwhelming.  The book is an introduction to the rich language of Falconry; rouse, baiting creance, fake. And her descriptions of the British countryside are delightfully tangible, a poignant part of the book being when Macdonald begins to emerge from her sorrow and once again take note of the landscape around her ‘a land filling slowly with spots and lines of beauty.