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.
Industry Reviews
"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
"This is an extremely well-made book. For a first, it's remarkably achieved. . . . Lockhart . . . is stepping towards the distinguished company of the great modern literary books on birds of prey. . . . But Raptor also makes its own way with originality and authenticity. The writing, at times, is as good as anything we have on the subject to date."-- "Country Life"
"[One of the] best books about birds and birding [of the year]. . . . The prose is so lovely that you may find yourself pondering whether this really is Lockhart's first book."--GrrlScientist "Forbes"
"An enthralling journey. . . . This illuminating book serves as homage to a brilliant naturalist and extraordinary birds. If you loved H Is for Hawk, put this next on your reading list."-- "Kirkus Reviews, starred review"
"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"
"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"
One of Kirkus's Best Books of 2017-- "Kirkus Reviews"
