Animals don\'t exist in order to teach us things, but that is what they have always done, and most of what they teach us is what we think we know about ourselves.
She now writes for the New York Times Magazine ..
MacDonald was a Research Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge, has worked as a professional falconer, and has assisted with the management of raptor research and conservation projects across Eurasia.
She is the author of the bestselling H Is for Hawk , as well as a cultural history of falcons, titled Falcon , and three collections of poetry, including Shaler\'s Fish .
About author(s): HELEN MacDonald is a writer, poet, illustrator and naturalist, and an affiliated research scholar at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge.
By one of this century\'s most important and insightful nature writers, Vesper Flights is a captivating and foundational book about observation, fascination, time, memory, love and loss and how we make sense of the world around us.
She writes with heart-tugging clarity about wild boar, swifts, mushroom hunting, migraines, the strangeness of birds\' nests, and the unexpected guidance and comfort we find when watching wildlife.
Meditating on notions of captivity and freedom, immigration and flight, Helen invites us into her most intimate experiences: observing the massive migration of songbirds from the top of the Empire State Building, watching tens of thousands of cranes in Hungary, seeking the last golden orioles in Suffolk\'s poplar forests.
In Vesper Flights Helen MacDonald brings together a collection of her best loved essays, along with new pieces on topics ranging from nostalgia for a vanishing countryside to the tribulations of farming ostriches to her own private vespers while trying to fall asleep.
Animals don\'t exist in order to teach us things, but that is what they have always done, and most of what they teach us is what we think we know about ourselves
