What is it that binds human beings to other animals? T. H. White, the author of The Once and Future King and Mistress Masham's Repose, was a young writer who found himself rifling through old handbooks of falconry. A particular sentence—"the bird reverted to a feral state"—seized his imagination, and, White later wrote, "A longing came to my mind that I should be able to do this myself. The word 'feral' has a kind of magical potency which allied itself to two other words, 'ferocious' and 'free.'" Immediately, White wrote to Germany to acquire a young goshawk. Gos, as White named the bird, was ferocious and Gos was free, and White had no idea how to break him in beyond the ancient (and, though he did not know it, long superseded) practice of depriving him of sleep, which meant that he, White, also went without rest. Slowly man and bird entered a state of delirium and intoxication, of attraction and repulsion that looks very much like love.
White kept a daybook describing his volatile relationship with Gos—at once a tale of obsession, a comedy of errors, and a hymn to the hawk. It was this that became The Goshawk, one of modern literature's most memorable and surprising encounters with the wilderness—as it exists both within us and without.
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'I read this when I was 17 and everything in the book - the cottage in the wood, White's loneliness, the untameable, beautiful bird, and above all the intricate awareness of the countryside - struck a deep resonance. Still does'
(Monty Don The Week)About the Author
Terence Hanbury White (1906–1964) was born in Bombay, India, and educated at Queen's College, Cambridge. His childhood was unhappy—"my parents loathed each other," he later wrote—and he grew up to become a solitary person with a deep fund of strange lore and a tremendous enthusiasm for fishing, hunting, and flying (which he took up to overcome his fear of heights). White taught for some years at the Stowe School until the success in 1936 of England Have My Bones, a book about outdoor adventure, allowed him to quit teaching and become a full-time writer. Along with The Goshawk, White was the author of twenty-six published works, including his famed sequence of Arthurian novels, The Once and Future King; the fantasy Mistress Masham's Repose (published in The New York Review Children's Collection); a collection of essays on the eighteenth century, The Age of Scandal; and a translation of a medieval Latin bestiary, A Book of Beasts. He died at sea on his way home from an American lecture tour and is buried in Piraeus, Greece.
Marie Winn's recent book, Red-Tails in Love: Pale Male's Story, featured a now-famous red-tailed hawk. Her column on nature and bird-watching appeared for twelve years in The Wall Street Journal, and she has written on diverse subjects for The New York Times Magazine and Smithsonian. Her forthcoming book, Central Park in the Dark, was published in the spring of 2008.
Marie Winn's recent book, Red-Tails in Love: Pale Male's Story, featured a now-famous red-tailed hawk. Her column on nature and bird-watching appeared for twelve years in The Wall Street Journal, and she has written on diverse subjects for The New York Times Magazine and Smithsonian. Her forthcoming book, Central Park in the Dark, was published in the spring of 2008.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
As a falconer from childhood I have always been told that this book illustrates the way not to train a hawk. This may be so but as a work of literature it is simply superb. T.H.White perfectly captures the spirit of the austringer; the endless patience and total devotion, and also the spirit of the hawk; stubborn yet obedient, deadly yet beautiful. Leaving the story aside, this book contains some of the most wonderful use of the English language that you will ever find, confirming that T.H.White must surely rank as one of the best authors of our time.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This book is about T H Whites attempts to tame wild goshawks. The whole book is beautifully written, and observed. This is NOT a falconry manual, more a heartfelt biographical account of the difficulties he had and the extremes of emotion experienced; between frustration, love, hate.
Readers of "The Sword in the Stone", will immediately recognise and understand where the character of "Gos" comes from.
I loved this book, both because I enjoy reading about falconry, but also because it was a "back-to-nature" enterprise on the authors part.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Bought this book for my 12yr old son who is keen on falconry but doesn't have his own bird. I was actually hoping it might stop his constant nagging of his parents to get him one! But this is a book particularly close to my heart anyway, as TH White was living in the cottage at Stowe Ridings when he wrote it - my family still farm there and indeed my uncle (then a boy) and grandfather are both mentioned in the book. I was interested too to see a photo of Tim (as he was known to us) in the front of this edition, with his bird at the back of the cottage. It is of course a classic and as well as being a manual of 'how not to do it' as far as training a Gos goes, I think reveals a lot about the character of this fascinating man.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful, Poetic
A splendid broth of observation, information and emotion, this deeply personal book is a welcome re-issue by the NY Review of Books. Read more
Published 17 days ago by C. Nicholls
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Goshhawk
A wonderful book.
And like T.H. White says " Any man who trains a hawk would make a wonderful mother."
And like T.H. White says " Any man who trains a hawk would make a wonderful mother."
Published 3 months ago by Stuart M. Flanders
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic!
Classic book that hasn't been bettered - well worth it's place on the book shelf!
Published on 17 May 2010 by R. J. Wheeler
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Classic
I purchased this book for my 19 year old son who is an ardent falconer. I remembered it as a book I loved and it has not aged. Well worth reading.
Published on 9 Feb 2010 by Melville
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Book;problems with introduction
The previous reviewer has spelled out why this book is so loved. The writing is superb and the subject matter engrossing. Read more
Published on 27 Oct 2007 by Peter Hill
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book.
Mr. White describes his experiences with training a goshawk for falconry. He has no guidance beyond an ancient manuscript and things go horribly awry. Read more
Published on 28 Nov 1997
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