Helen Macdonald

Helen Macdonald is an English academic and writer best known for their non-fiction novel, H is for Hawk (2014). There’s a trend with Macdonald’s literary work – all of it is about the natural world!

Helen Macdonald biography

Helen Macdonald was born in Surrey in 1970. She was raised in Camberley, a place which they describe as a traditional and conservative town. Both of Macdonald’s parents worked in journalism. Their father was a photojournalist for the daily mirror, while their mother was a writer for local papers in Camberley.

Commenting on their childhood in a 2018 article, Macdonald discussed a park near her childhood home. This park was named Tekels Park and, according to Macdonald, ‘indelibly shaped’ their writing life.¹

After completing their secondary education, Macdonald attended Cambridge university, where they studied English. Later in their life, Macdonald became a Research Fellow at Jesus College in Cambridge between 2004 and 2007. Currently, Macdonald is an Affiliated Research Scholar at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge.

In conversation with journalist Kate Kellaway, Macdonald commented on their academic background and journey to becoming a writer, stating that they;

Helen Macdonald's personal life

Currently, Macdonald lives in Suffolk. Macdonald does not have a partner. However, they previously lived with their goshawk, Mabel, who died in 2014 and parrot, Birdoole, who died in 2021. Remarking on the death of Mabel, Macdonald stated;

Fig. 1 - Helen Macdonald's goshawk was called Mabel

Helen Macdonald author

Macdonald published their first book in 2001, a collection of poetry titled Shaler’s Fish. However, it was their work H is for Hawk (2014) that brought them critical acclaim. Alongside their writing career, Macdonald has narrated and written a number of radio programmes. They also appeared on Bird Britannia (2010) and presented The Hidden Wilds of the Motorway (2020), two BBC Four documentaries.

The natural world is the centre-point of Macdonald's writing. Although Macdonald's work often considers the concept of grief, they consider the subject of their writing to be 'love of the world and the things in it'.³ However, they acknowledge that 'writing about love means you are also writing about death.

One of Macdonald's great loves is the natural world, and therefore, to them, 'it is hard to write about the natural world without writing about grief'.³

Let’s take a look at the books which Macdonald has written so far.

Helen Macdonald books

Macdonald has published four books during their lifetime:

• Shaler’s Fish (2001)
• Falcon (2006)
• H is for Hawk (2014)
• Vesper Flights (2020)

Alongside these books, Macdonald published Falcon, a new edition in 2016. They have also published several newspaper articles; for instance, in April 2020, they published an article in the New Statesman titled ‘Learning from the Birds’.

H is for Hawk (2014)

Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk is a memoir in which Macdonald recounts how they trained a goshawk whilst mourning the death of their father. Macdonald wrote this book as part of their journey through grief. In their own words, they were 'broken and trying to stitch the world together by keeping a journal'.²

In 2007, Macdonald travelled 400 miles from their home to Scotland, where they met their goshawk. Describing their first meeting with this bird in chapter five ('Holding Tight'), Macdonald wrote;

Although H is for Hawk is a non-fiction work, Macdonald employs a notable amount of descriptive writing to convey this first meeting. Their use of short metaphorical sentences to describe the Hawk as a ‘reptile. A fallen angel. A griffon’, ‘something bright and distant’, and ‘a broken marionette of wings’ indicates to the reader that this creature and The Hawk’s beauty is mythical yet challenging to pin down and describe since multiple references are being used.

Vesper Flights (2020)

Macdonald's latest work, Vesper Flights, is a collection of essays which continues the trend of Macdonald's work focusing on the natural world. However, while H is for Hawk (2014), centred on Macdonald's own personal journey of grief, Vesper Flights discusses what animals can teach us about ourselves.

Climate change is a centre-point of Macdonald's essays, as they consider humankind's relationship with the natural world and how we can protect our planet.