Raptor: A Journey Through Birds - Hardcover

Lockhart, James MacDonald

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 022647058X ISBN 13: 9780226470580

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2017

Synopsis

From the merlin to the golden eagle, the goshawk to the honey buzzard, James Macdonald Lockhart's stunning debut is a quest of beak, talon, wing, and sky. On its surface, Raptor is a journey across the British Isles in search of fifteen species of birds of prey, but as Lockhart seeks out these elusive predators, his quest becomes so much more: an incomparably elegant elegy on the beauty of the British landscape and, through the birds, a journey toward understanding an awesome power at the heart of the natural world--a power that is majestic and frightening in its strength, but also fragile.

Taking as his guide the nineteenth-century Scottish naturalist and artist William MacGillivray, Lockhart loosely follows the historical trail forged by MacGillivray as he ventured from Aberdeen to London filling his pockets with plants and writing and illustrating the canonical A History of British Birds. Linking his journey to that of his muse, Lockhart shares his own encounters with raptors ranging from the scarce osprey to the successfully reintroduced red kite, a species once protected by medieval royal statute, revealing with poetic immediacy the extraordinary behaviors of these birds and the extreme environments they call home.

Creatures both worshipped and reviled, raptors have a talon-hold on the human heart and imagination. With his book, Lockhart unravels these complicated ties in a work by turns reverent and euphoric--an interweaving of history, travel, and nature writing at its best. A hymn to wanderers, to the land and to the sky, and especially to the birds, Raptor soars.

About this title

Review:

"Raptor rips at its words, turning them into exquisite portraits of the utter wild, shaping soaring, obsessive beauty out of the British landscape and its imperial birds."--Philip Hoare

"Lockhart's soaring debut is a perfect synthesis of travel writing and natural history. The premise of Raptor is simple. . . . Yet the fruits of his labor are anything but plain as he laces vivid prose with illuminating facts to explore his own colorful experiences without shifting focus from the birds themselves. Following in the tradition of T. H. White's The Goshawk, J. A. Baker's The Peregrine, and, most recently, Helen Macdonald's rapturously received H is for Hawk, Lockhart elegantly depicts these creatures of the sky and, in so doing, celebrates the natural richness of the country over which they fly."--Anna Godfrey "Financial Times "

"Lockhart's [book] is one to sample and savour in smaller doses. They say that the fragrance of violets only persists a few seconds before the ionone shortcircuits our sensory systems. Lockhart's prose is so finely worked and so rich in arresting images that it has something of the same effect. . . . The birds and the landscapes are all beautifully evoked, and there are many breathtaking turns of phrase. Lockhart also has a superb eye . . . and makes some beautifully nuanced discriminations."--Jeremy Mynott, author of "Birdscapes: Birds in Our Imagination and Experience" "Times Literary Supplement "

"Lockhart is a wonderfully modest presence. . . . He has mastered an engaging present-tense prose that brings out both the birds' ecstatic gifts of flight but also the tragedy and triumph of their predatory lifestyle. . . . His descriptions . . . are as precise as they are inventive."--Mark Cocker "Observer "

"In flight--as Lockhart rhapsodies--nothing is more graceful than a hawk sailing the wind. The sight, for those with eyes to see, leaves the watcher, with an ounce of poetry in their soul, 'rapt.' Nowhere is the paradox of nature's combined beauty and cruelty more perfectly embodied than in these winged raptors."--John Sutherland "Times "

"Lush."--Nigel Andrew "Literary Review "

"Outstanding. . . The writing is beautifully precise. . . . For Lockhart, it becomes clear, wild birds of prey represent the living spirit of a place--of Britain. In this delicate, complex, open-ended book, full of freshness and movement, he captures that wild spirit without ever making it feel captive."--James McConnachie "Sunday Times "

"Lockhart's prose is . . . so intimate, urgent, and visceral as to make his darkly resonant ruminations almost unfailingly gripping."--Matthew Adams "Independent "

"Lockhart's exquisite, poetic language is a sensuous delight without sacrificing scientific accuracy. Raptor is, quite simply, a tour de force."--Bel Mooney "Daily Mail "

"The frequent appearance of Macgillivray and his works, even his meetings with local people as he walks hundreds of miles in search of birds, adds a pleasing quirkiness to an already unusual work, beautifully evoking birds and environments. The book has a lot of informative detail within, so that in reading these accounts a good deal of learning about birds and places is inevitable. Any bird of prey fan, particularly those with an interest in these spectacular birds' changing fortunes over time, will find it irresistible, and it is thoroughly recommended."--Rob Hume, author of "Life with Birds" "BirdGuides "

About the Author:

James Macdonald Lockhart was born in 1975. Raptor is his first book and the recipient of the Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award for Non-Fiction. He lives in Warwickshire, United Kingdom.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 022647058X
• ISBN 13: 9780226470580
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384