![]() ![]() ![]() Now her “very strange” year has been recorded in a beautifully written and almost unbearably poignant new book. And, as Helen submerged herself into Mabel's macabre world of hunting and killing, she found herself slowly slipping away from humanity. But she’d never wanted to fly a goshawk.Ĭolossal, psychopathic and brutal, it seems that goshawks resemble sparrowhawks the way leopards resemble pussycats. It isn’t as bizarre as it sounds: as a keen falconer, Helen has flown hawks for many years. ![]() Then, curtains drawn, phone unplugged, she set about training her deadly bird of prey in her small Cambridge house. And so, after stuffing her freezer with hawk food (steak, day-old chicks, rabbit legs), the historian and nature writer drove up to Scotland, handed over £800 to a breeder, and headed home with her precious cargo - a baby goshawk named Mabel - in a box on the back seat. Anything to distract you from the white heat of grief.īut Helen Macdonald took this one step further.Ĭonsumed with sadness after her father’s sudden death, she felt compelled to do something extraordinary. When you lose somebody you love, throwing yourself into your work can be overwhelmingly tempting. ![]()
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