Falcon And The Hawk, The

Oct 5, 2024 5:23 AM

Author:Helen Macdonald,Helen Macdonald,David Birrell,Gemma Lawrence

Helen Macdonald is a falconer and poet. She keeps a goshawk called Mabel. As a child she fell in love with a rare book of intense nature writing, J.A. Baker's The Peregrine, which records a winter watching wild peregrines on the Essex coast. Her new play brings her birds and his together. Baker tramps the bleak coastal marshes scanning the skies for fleeting moments of bloody drama as a peregrine stoops at immense speed after a plover or a pigeon. Helen woos her captive-bred goshawk in her spare bedroom - acclimatising it to human noise and human movement. Baker crouches over a half-dead pigeon and finishes it off for the wild falcon; Helen walks the city street with a goshawk on her fist. Their stories begin to fly closer to one another. Starring David Birrell as J. A. Baker, Gemma Lawrence as Young Helen and Helen Macdonald as herself. Part recorded on location at The Bird of Prey Centre in Newent, Gloucestershire. Producer: Tim Dee.

Reviews

Superb

—— Stephen Bayley , The Observer

Masterful

—— GQ

One of the best books ever written about the city

—— New Statesman

A thrilling virtuoso piece of pop scholarship

—— Q

Du Noyer's erudition and lightness of touch is a reward in itself... An essential addition to the shelves of every rock fan

—— MOJO

Wonderfully thoughtful and entertaining... Thanks to his gentle erudition, his vivid evocation of the ruined grandeur of the streets and, above all, his thoroughly Liverpuddlian sense of humour, Du Noyer is an inspiring guide

—— The Sunday Times

Haines manages to maintain a degree of objectivity and offers us a perspective on the music industry as it turns to dust. It helps that he is funny. Like an articulate but permanently pissed uncle, he's a master of the clever cuss and an enthusiastic employer of the tangential footnote...This is an enjoyably smirksome read.

—— Time Out

"Must never end up like Bobby Gillespie" It's not a bad strategy for life, and happily one the ferociously talented Luke Haines continues to adhere to in his follow-up to Bad Vibes. Resuming from where that excoriatingly brilliant book left off...Grimly amusing.

—— Word

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