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My guests today are co-authors of the techno-thriller novel Prophet. Helen Macdonald is an English writer, naturalist, and an affiliated research scholar at the University of Cambridge. Their 2014 book “H is for Hawk” tells the true story of a year spent training a northern goshawk while grieving. The book won, among many other things, the Samuel Johnson Prize for literature. Sin Blaché is an American Irish musician and writer. The pair became friends on social media where they bonded over nerdish things. Then they arranged to meet in a remote Airbnb in rural Ireland, and began work on a collaborative novel. The result, Prophet, was released in late 2023 to widespread acclaim. A reviewer for The Guardian described it as “a work of exceptional storytelling skill and stylistic panache,” suggesting an alternative title might be ‘H Is for High-Octane Adventure.” Be attitude for gains. https://plus.acast.com/s/my-perfect-console. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In 2014 a book with a striking bird on its cover appeared in bookshops but what kind of book was it? Was it a memoir about grief, or a book about training a goshawk? Was it a biography of T. H. White, or was it nature writing? Or was it perhaps a melding of all of these things? And how did this hybrid book go on to become an award winner and international bestseller? In this episode we hear from Helen Macdonald about turning grief into almost a new genre of writing and from the team at publisher Jonathan Cape, which celebrates its centenary this year, about creating a modern classic. Featuring: Helen Macdonald, Dan Franklin, Suzanne Dean, Chris Wormell, Ruth Waldram, Rob Verner Jeffreys, Steve Bundy
Every year, at holiday time, Macdonald reads this tale of a boy who finds out he's one of the "old ones," part of a series from author Susan Cooper. She says it reconnects her with a sense of wonder inspired by what might lurk beneath the surface of the seen world. My name's Helen Macdonald — I'm the author of "H Is For Hawk" — and I want to recommend a 1973 children's book called "The Dark Is Rising" by the author Susan Cooper. This funny thing happens in England every year: a whole bunch of friends of mine — on the winter solstice — we all read this book. It's a book about magic. Anyone who's read Harry Potter will know that there is a long history of books about small boys, when they're about 10 or 11, realizing that they're not normal, that they have magical powers. And this is one of the early books in that kind of tradition. It's about a small boy called Will who wakes up on his eleventh birthday to discover that he is, in fact, one of the "old ones." And his job is to protect the world against the forces of darkness. This all sounds very, very clichéd but my goodness, I cannot recommend this book more highly. It's one of the most beautifully written fantasy books I've ever come across. It made the English landscape sing for me as a child. It's full of snowy woods. It's full of Arthurian legend. It's full of Anglo-Saxon myths. It's full of everyday life. There are the most astonishing sequences which brim with eerie power of the small boy who has the power to light fires out of dead wood he sees lying on paths, and the panic as he realizes that — for some reason — he cannot put them out. When you're small, you're prey to fear, you're prey to panics in a way that I think disappear as you get older. Whenever I read this book, those old panics about our place in the world and the limits of our powers come back bright as ever. It's also a very poignant book. There are characters in here who suffer. There are characters who are caught out of time. And the whole thing is also about how we see the past in the landscape. This has been very influential for me — when you look at the landscape wherever you are in the world, it's very fascinating to try and imagine who stood there before you. And this book plays with that sense and plays with the stories we've told about the places we live. Also it's got the kind of really cool things that you find in fantasy books, you know: Will has to collect a series of very important things of power — again, very Potter-like — and the whole book itself is part of a much wider series that deals with this great fight between the dark and the light. You know you can't mess around with that, as a topic. So I really recommend you go out and buy this book and I really hope you'll love it as much as I do. —This author recommends— The Dark is Rising (The Dark is Rising Sequence) —More from this author— Interview: Helen Macdonald Battles Grief with a Goshawk—Interview: Helen Macdonald and "Birdle" the Parrot
In this first mini bonus episode, Heidi dives a little deeper into one of her favorite books, H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald, and her own experience with grief after losing loved ones. Thanks for listening!Books MentionedVesper Flights, by Helen MacdonaldFalcon, by Helen MacdonaldShaler's Fish, by Helen MacdonaldFind Heidi @heidisbooksjustso on Instagram, and Lisse @lissedolinger. Get in touch with us to talk books @westmorelandpodcast.Season two is scheduled to begin at the end of April...happy reading!Affiliate disclaimer: all our affiliate links are for abebooks.com...your cost stays the same, but the little kickback from your purchases through our links supports the podcast and helps us keep recording!
The latest edition of Library Out Loud! H is for Hawk recounts how the author, an experienced falconer grieving the sudden death of her father, endeavored to train for the first time a dangerous goshawk predator as part of her personal recovery. Audio Credit: shine by Rexlambo | https://soundcloud.com/rexlambo Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US
A cat, a hawk, a monkey, a crow and a lop-eared rabbit: animals who walked into the lives of five people leaving the humans to wonder, 'What am I to this creature?'
A cat, a hawk, a monkey, a crow and a lop-eared rabbit: animals who walked into the lives of five people leaving the humans to wonder, 'What am I to this creature?'
Helen Macdonald—the naturalist, poet, and author best known for her acclaimed and award-winning memoir, “H Is For Hawk”; she’s published a new book, “Vesper Flights”—expands on a point she makes […]
Brea and Mallory finally talk about bird books. Use the hashtag #ReadingGlassesPodcast to participate in online discussion! Email us at readingglassespodcast at gmail dot com!MAX FUN DRIVE! Reading Glasses Merch Recommendations StoreDrunken Erotica Pick - Being NeighborlySponsor - Book NicksPromo Code - GLASSES20Links -Reading Glasses Facebook GroupReading Glasses Goodreads GroupAmazon Wish ListNewsletter Books Mentioned - Lakewood by Megan GiddingsBoys of Alabama by Genevieve HudsonThe Genius of Birds by Jennifer AckermanH is for Hawk by Helen MacDonaldThe Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace JohnsonThe Ravenmaster by Christopher SkaifeHollow Kingdom by Kira Jane BuxtonStellaluna by Janell CannonMouthful of Birds by Samantha Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowellMidnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather WebberGrief is the Thing With Feathers by Max PorterThe Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova
Hello fellow bibliophiles, it has been a while! Hosts Yuli and Sam spend each episode chatting about books while hopefully adding to your always growing TBR list. Big Little Books is back to its regular programming, fuelled mostly by coffee… and sometimes wine. For Ottawa bookworms, in this episode, we chat about OPL updates, (check out https://bilbioottawalibrary.ca for the most recent updates), as well as virtual book options. We dig into our shared read of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls as well as our Cyber Movie Date. Do you remember how in our last episode we thought Books Spotted would be taking a break because of the ongoing pandemic? That is no longer the case. Tune in to see why! From books about urbanism and city-life, to classic sci-fi and the prequel to the Hunger Games, Yuli and Sam talk about summer reading recommendations to dive into this summer. We are happy to be back and hope to have more interviews and fresh updates for you soon. The next episode will be out at the end of August! Find us on Instagram @biglittlebookspod or email us at biglittlebookspod@gmail.com EPISODE GUIDE: 00:01:10 – Quiz – What Summer Reading Book are you? Yuli: HUNGER: A MEMOIR OF (MY) BODY by Roxanne Gay 00:02:05 – Quiz – What Summer Reading Book are you? Sam: A DUKE BY DEFAULT by Alyssa Cole (Reluctant Royals #2) 00:03:35 – OPL Updates ( https://bilbioottawalibrary.ca) 00:06:00 – How have you been doing your book shopping? 00:08:20 – Virtual Book Launches are a thing! 00:10:13 – The Glass Castle Discussion: THE GLASS CASTLE by Jeanette Walls 00:15:39 – Cyber Movie Date 00:19:10 – Short book review: H IS FOR HAWK by Helen Macdonald 00:22:06 – Short book review: THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY by Oscar Wilde 00:27:08 – Short book review: BONE CRIER’S MOON by Kathryn Purdie (Bone Grace #1) 00:28:35 – Intermission 00:28:50 – Books Spotted: DARK MATTER by Blake Crouch 00:30:16 – Books Spotted: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES by Suzanne Collins 00:31:17 – Books Spotted: THE FINAL EMPIRE by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn #1) 00:32:50 – Currently Reading: THE FOURTH HORSEMAN: A SHORT HISTORY OF EPIDEMICS, PLAGUES, FAMINE, AND OTHER COURGES by Andrew Nikiforuk 00:34:31 – Currently Reading: NINE PINTS: A JOURNEY THROUGH THE MONEY, MEDICINE, AND MYSTERIES OF BLOOD by Rose George 00:37:01 – Currently Reading: THEY EAT THEIR OWN by Amanda K. King and Michael R. Swanson (A Thung Toh Jig 2) 00:38:10 – Summer Reading Recommendation: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES by Suzanne Collins 00:40:31 – Summer Reading Recommendation: DUNE by Frank Herbert 00:42:10 – Black Squirrel Recommended Books on Urbanism and City Life: WALKABLE CITY RULES: 101 STEPS TO MAKING BETTER PLACES by Jeff Speck, CITIES FOR PEOPLE by Jan Gehl, HAPPY CITY: TRANSFORMING OUR LIVES THROUGH URBAN DESIGN by Charles Montgomery 00:43:35 – HP on Audio 00:44:26 – Besides Books
According to the will of the Patreon I read H is for Hawk. Turkeys are terrorizing Moorhead, MNWisdom the albatross is mating again. Gizmodo has a more colorful headline.
We started a Patreon!The great black hawk that’s been in Maine is in wildlife rehab with frostbite. What will it’s future be?The American Birding Association Bird of the Year is the red-billed tropicbird. The artwork is by Megan Massa. Follow her on Instagram @MeganDrawsBirds. The raven and snowy owl video we referenced in the podcast.
The grief over the sudden death of his wife Joy compelled novelist Jonathan Santlofer to begin writing, and those scribbled thoughts and memories became his beautiful memoir, THE WIDOWER'S NOTEBOOK. He and James discuss losing the first person you want to share stories with, not letting yourself off the hook, falling in love with a cat, relying on process, and, ultimately, refusing to live in the shadows. Plus, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich on the response to their book, THE FACT OF A BODY. - Jonathan Santlofer: http://jonathansantlofer.com/ Jonathan and James discuss: SALON PEOPLE Yaddo FOOD CITY: FOUR CENTURIES OF FOOD-MAKING IN NEW YORK by Joy Santlofer and Marion Nestle Norton New York University Faculty Club Tom's Bakery Brooklyn Brine Malaprop's Bookstore RIDING IN CARS WITH BOYS by Beverly Donofrio Lee Child CRIME AND PUNISHMENT by Fyodor Dostoevsky LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser THE ICEBERG by Marion Coutts Elisabeth Kubler-Ross IN A DARK WOOD by Joseph Luzzi "Experience" by Ralph Waldo Emerson THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING by Joan Didion H IS FOR HAWK by Helen Macdonald - Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich: http://alexandria-marzano-lesnevich.com/ Alexandria and James Discuss: "On the Necessity of Turning Oneself into a Character" by Philip Lopate Jonathan Santlofer Lauren Groff "By the Book" from THE NEW YORK TIMES - http://tkpod.com / tkwithjs@gmail.com / Twitter: @JamesScottTK Instagram: tkwithjs / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkwithjs/
This episode I chat to multi-award-winning writer Helen MacDonald, author of H IS FOR HAWK, about finding the right words, finding your voice, and pushing through in the face of self-doubt. We discuss her poetic influences, Top Gun, madness, painting and masculine crisis in interbellum England. We really dig down into how you might go about turning your experiences, traumas and big questions into meaningful writing that connects with others. And, as well as talking about how to deal with setbacks and doubt, we cover that so rarely discussed of topics: how to cope with success. This is a great episode to listen to if you want to know: - how can I find my voice as a writer? - what sort of writing routine should I establish? - how can writing poetry help with my prose? - what's it like when your book does really well? - what are some techniques for overcoming low self-confidence? If you enjoy this episode and you haven't yet read H IS FOR HAWK, I suggest you click here to get it delivered (with free P&P) to your door. It really is as good as the reviews and awards say - I found it magnetically compelling: https://wordery.com/h-is-for-hawk-helen-macdonald-9780099575450#oid=1908_1 Oh, and I did a novel! If you like me and want to do me a solid, chuck me a few pence by buying my book, THE HONOURS, please: https://wordery.com/the-honours-tim-clare-9781782114765#oid=1908_1 And you can support the podcast directly via my Ko-fi page: https://ko-fi.com/timclare Thank you so much for continuing to listen and share Death Of 1000 Cuts.
Helen Macdonald, author of H Is For Hawk and Tim Birkhead, Professor of Behaviour and Evolution at the University of Sheffield and author of Bird Sense, share their experiences of observing birds closely and their pick of writing inspired by real and fictional birds. Professor Birkhead's recent research has been into the adaptive significance of egg shape in birds and Helen Macdonald won the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize and Costa Book Award for her writing about the year she spent training a goshawk. Presenter: Lucy PowellProducer: Jacqueline Smith
In 2007, writer and falconer Helen Macdonald lost her father tragically to a heart attack. The two were close, and in order to find a way through her grief, she retreated to a childhood passion for falconry. Helen adopted goshawk, a notoriously difficult bird to tame, and over the course of many months, trained her to become an obedient hunter. She wrote about the experience in her best-selling 2014 book H is for Hawk. Now, ten years later, Helen’s experience training a new goshawk is the subject of the NATURE episode H is for Hawk: A New Chapter, which premieres Nov 1 at 8pm ET on PBS. Fred Kaufman, NATURE’s executive producer, interviewed Helen about the film at the Television Critics Association press tour in Los Angeles early this summer. Learn more about "H Is for Hawk: A New Chapter" on the NATURE website: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/h-is-for-hawk-about/15500/
James Naughtie discusses H is for Hawk with Helen Macdonald
Erich Matthes reads from H Is For Hawk by Helen MacDonald, published by Grove Press in 2015. "Trained hawks have a peculiar ability to conjure history...You take a hawk onto your fist. You imagine the falconer of the past doing the same. It is hard not to feel it is the same hawk."
A New York Times bestseller and award-winning sensation, Helen Macdonald’s story of adopting and raising one of nature’s most vicious predators has soared into the hearts of millions of readers worldwide. Following the sudden death of her father, Macdonald battled with a fierce and feral goshawk to stave off her own depression. With ALOUD’s Louise Steinman, author of the far-reaching memoir about her father’s past, The Souvenir, Macdonald will discuss her transcendent account of human versus nature and the essential lessons she learned from her foray into falconry.Click here for photos from the program.
Before Helen Macdonald rose to international acclaim with her "beautiful and nearly feral" (New York Times) bestselling memoir H Is for Hawk, she wrote a collection of poetry, Shaler's Fish. In robust, lyrical verse, Shaler's Fish roams both the outer and inner landscapes of the poet's universe, seamlessly fusing reflections on language, science, and literature, with the loamy environments of the natural worlds around her. H is for Hawk - One of the New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of the Year ON MORE THAN 25 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR LISTS: including TIME (#1 Nonfiction Book), NPR, O, The Oprah Magazine (10 Favorite Books), Vogue (Top 10), Vanity Fair, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times, San Francisco Chronicle (Top 10), Miami Herald, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Minneapolis Star Tribune (Top 10), Library Journal (Top 10), Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Slate, Shelf Awareness, Book Riot, Amazon (Top 20) - Amazon The Avid Reader Show is sponsored and produced by Wellington Square Bookshop in Chester County, PA. The Show airs Mondays at 5PM on WCHE AM 1520 EST. Please visit our website at www.wellingtonsquarebooks.com
In which Alan, John and Jen discuss Helen Macdonald's Costa Award-winning memoir H Is For Hawk (2014), as well as a slew of other autobiographical writings, both real and imagined. Along the way we chat about Bob Dylan, Carrie Brownstein, Edmund White, John Porcellino and Kanye West. From John Porcellino's Perfect Example: http://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1380359337i/710397.png
Auckland Writers Festival 2015 English historian, poet, naturalist and illustrator Helen Macdonald once bred hawks for Arab sheikhs. She is also the winner of the Costa Award and the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction for H is for Hawk, a chronicle of her attempt to tame Mabel the goshawk as a means of assuaging grief after the death of her father. “Grief,” she writes, “is just love with nowhere to go.” Referencing the similar attempts of T. H. White (of Once and Future King fame) to master falconry, Macdonald’s memoir is described as, pun intended, “a soaring triumph”. Chaired by Noelle McCarthy.
Episode 8: We discuss cheating, in our own lives, and as portrayed in YA fiction. You can subscribe to this episode and previous episodes via iTunes or Stitcher. SHOW NOTES Our Current Reads Christa: The Dinner by Herman Koch; Delicate Monsters by Stephanie Kuehn Carrie: Infinite Sky by CJ Flood; H Is For Hawk … Continue reading Episode #8: Cheating
English historian, poet, naturalist and illustrator Helen Macdonald once bred hawks for Arab sheikhs. She is also the winner of the Costa Award and the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction for H is for Hawk, a chronicle of her attempt to tame Mabel the goshawk as a means of assuaging grief after the death of her father.... Read full post ›
Slate critics Katy Waldman, Julia Turner, and Meghan O'Rourke discuss Helen MacDonald's shapeshifting memoir. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week - a Helen MacDonald visit to Bristol prompts a discussion of her astonishing, nature writing-redefining memoir H Is For Hawk, while Nathan's been watching '70s dystopias Rollerball and Network and Sarah's been writing about the parenting pressures of world book day.
Helen Macdonald talks about training a goshawk Mabel in the aftermath of her father's death. Her critically acclaimed book H is for Hawk winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize and Costa Book of the Year 2014. Helen Macdonald is an English writer, naturalist, and an Affiliated Research Scholar at the University of Cambridge Department of History and Philosophy of Science. She is best known as the author of H is for Hawk, which won the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize and Costa Book Award. In 2016, it also won the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger in France. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: http://5x15stories.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/5x15stories
This week, Vicki Constantine Croke discusses Heather Macdonald’s “H Is for Hawk”; Parul Sehgal has news from the literary world; John Williams talks about Nick Hornby’s “Funny Girl”; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.
Inspiration Takes Flight In her powerful, emotive new memoir H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald recounts her obsessive pursuit to become a falconer. Following the shock of her father’s death and inspired by T H White’s The Goshawk, she embarked on a journey to train her own goshawk. Macdonald joins us to discuss her celebratory, elegiac book - a reminder of our deep-rooted connections to the natural world. Chaired by Charlotte Higgins, chief arts writer for the Guardian.
Helen Macdonald and Tim Dee came to the Bookshop to talk about birds, and about writing about birds. Radio producer Tim Dee propelled himself into the front rank of British nature writing in 2009 with his remarkable birdwatching memoir The Running Sky, followed in 2013 by Four Fields. Helen Macdonald, writer, poet, naturalist, conservationist, historian and some-time falconer, has recently published H is for Hawk which recounts how, under the literary tutelage of T.H. White and in part as a strategy for overcoming personal grief, she acquired and trained a goshawk of her own. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.