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| Author | Helen Macdonald |
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| Genre | Memoir |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
Publication date | 2014 |
| Pages | 300 pp. |
| Awards | Samuel Johnson Prize, Costa Book of the Year |
| ISBN | 0-224-09700-8 |
| OCLC | 898117636 |
H is for Hawk is a 2014 memoir by British author Helen Macdonald. It won the Samuel Johnson Prize and Costa Book of the Year award, among other honours.
H is for Hawk tells Macdonald's story of the year she spent training a northern goshawk in the wake of her father's death. Her father, Alisdair Macdonald, was a respected photojournalist who died suddenly of a heart attack in 2007. Having been a falconer for many years, she purchased a young goshawk to help her through the grieving process.
The book reached The Sunday Times best-seller list within two weeks of being published in July 2014. [1]
In an interview with The Guardian , Macdonald said, "While the backbone of the book is a memoir about that year when I lost my father and trained a hawk, there are also other things tangled up in that story which are not memoir. There is the shadow biography of TH White, and a lot of nature-writing, too. I was trying to let these different genres speak to each other." [2] White was the author of The Goshawk (1951), an account of his own attempt to train a goshawk. [3]
Kevin Jackson, writing for Literary Review , drew further comparisons between Macdonald and White, in that she resembles him "in her gluttony for words both homely and exotic, their associations and histories." [4] Macdonald's rich vocabulary is distinguished by her passion for precision, Jackson wrote: "Her eye is every bit as educated as her mind."
Judges of the Samuel Johnson Prize specifically highlighted that marriage of genres as one of the reasons for selecting H is for Hawk as the winner. [2]
An extract of this book is part of the anthology of Edexcel English Language IGCSE in the new specification.
In "H is for Hawk: A New Chapter", part of BBC's Natural World series in 2017, Macdonald trained a new goshawk chick. [5]
The film rights for the memoir were acquired by Lena Headey in April 2015, with intentions to star and produce in the adaption in conjunction with Plan B Entertainment. [6] [7] [8] In February 2024, it was announced Claire Foy and Brendan Gleeson were cast in the film, along with Philippa Lowthorpe named as the director and Emma Donoghue as scriptwriter. Film4 Productions will also co-produce and co-finance the adaptation with Plan B. [9]
Terence Hanbury "Tim" White was an English writer. He is best known for his Arthurian novels, which were published together in 1958 as The Once and Future King. One of his most memorable is the first of the series, The Sword in the Stone, which was published as a stand-alone book in 1938.
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The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, formerly the Samuel Johnson Prize, is an annual British book prize for the best non-fiction writing in the English language. It was founded in 1999 following the demise of the NCR Book Award. With its motto "All the best stories are true", the prize covers current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts. The competition is open to authors of any nationality whose work is published in the UK in English. The longlist, shortlist and winner is chosen by a panel of independent judges, which changes every year. Formerly named after English author and lexicographer Samuel Johnson, the award was renamed in 2015 after Baillie Gifford, an investment management firm and the primary sponsor. Since 2016, the annual dinner and awards ceremony has been sponsored by the Blavatnik Family Foundation.
Helen Dunmore FRSL was a British poet, novelist, and short story and children's writer.
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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 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 won the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger in France.
Lena Headey is an English actress and producer. Headey studied acting at Shelley College where she performed in a number of school productions at the Royal National Theatre. She made her film debut in the 1992 mystery drama Waterland. After appearing in a series of supporting parts throughout the 1990s, she went on to find fame for lead performances in big-budget films such as the fantasy film The Brothers Grimm (2005) and the action film 300 (2007), portraying Gorgo, Queen of Sparta, a role she yet again played in 300: Rise of an Empire (2014).
Alisdair Macdonald (1940-2007) was a British press photographer who worked for 26 years with the Daily Mirror. He took a seven-year break to help launch the first full-colour national newspaper Today.
The Costa Book Award for First Novel, formerly known as the Whitbread Award (1971-2006), was an annual literary award for authors' debut novels, part of the Costa Book Awards which were discontinued in 2022, the 2021 awards being the last made.
The Costa Book Award for Children's Book, formerly known as the Whitbread Award (1971-2005), was an annual literary award for children's books, part of the Costa Book Awards, which were discontinued in 2022, the 2021 awards being the last made.
The Costa Book Award for Biography, formerly part of the Whitbread Book Awards (1971-2006), was an annual literary award for children's books, part of the Costa Book Awards. The award concluded in 2022.
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