The clearing of a cherished meadow from the author’s childhood in “Tekels Park” symbolizes frighteningly rapid environmental change. The increasingly violent collision between the human and animal worlds becomes apparent in “Deer in the Headlights,” in which images of cars striking deer are painted with stomach-churning detail. The author is inspired to reconcile her positive feelings about tradition with her concerns about the nationalism that led to Brexit. In “Swan Upping,” Macdonald writes about the yearly British tradition of catching the swans on the Thames for identification purposes. The topics of the essays, like the pieces in a Wunderkammer, are wide-ranging and based in the natural world each has the purpose of sparking a larger discussion based on an initial observation. These collections of unusual objects, highly popular in centuries past, were meant to inspire curiosity, even awe, and certainly would have been conversation starters. The introduction presents the book as a literary Wunderkammer. In 2020, Macdonald released her highly anticipated follow-up, Vesper Flights, an essay collection composed of new and previously published pieces. With rave reviews and a couple of major book awards under its belt, H Is for Hawk is a tough act to follow. Her story of throwing herself into the process of training the notoriously hard-to-tame goshawk in the wake of her father’s sudden death resonated with readers, bird enthusiasts or not.

As nature books go, Helen Macdonald’s 2014 memoir, H Is for Hawk, was as big and successful as they come.

Helen macdonald goshawk