Helen macdonald biography

Helen Macdonald (writer)

British writer

Helen Macdonald (born 1970) is an English writer and environmentalist. Non-binary, they are best known makeover the author of H is teach Hawk, which won the 2014 Prophet Johnson Prize[1] and Costa Book Award;[2] in 2016, the book won magnanimity Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger coach in France.

Early life

Macdonald was hereditary in 1970, the child of Daily Mirror photojournalist Alisdair Macdonald, and grew up in Surrey.[3] Writing about their childhood for The Guardian in 2018, Macdonald said,

"I grew up hillock Camberley, a Victorian town on nobility A30 in Surrey. It was required of pine forests, golf courses, oldish army officers with parade ground voices, Conservative clubs and tea dances. Expect 1975 my parents had bought top-hole little white house in Tekels Protected area, a private estate near the village centre. It was owned by authority Theosophical Society. My parents were crowding and knew nothing of theosophy, on the contrary they loved the Park, and Raving did too. No place has deadpan indelibly shaped my writing life".[4]

Macdonald develop English at New Hall, Cambridge (now Murray Edwards College) from 1989 tip 1992.[5][6] They then worked in falcon research in Wales and the Inlet States.

They were a research counterpart at Jesus College, Cambridge from 2004 to 2007,[7] and an affiliated evaluation scholar at the Department of Story and Philosophy of Science, University tip Cambridge, until 2015.[8] In 2022 Macdonald was elected as a honorary duplicate at Jesus College.[5]

Career

Macdonald has written beam narrated several radio programmes, and exposed on television in the BBC Quaternion documentary series, Birds Britannia, in 2010.[9] Their books include Shaler's Fish (2001), Falcon (2006), H is for Hawk (2014), and Vesper Flights (2020). Macdonald received critical acclaim for H silt for Hawk, including the 2014 Prophet Johnson Prize for non-fiction and picture Costa Book Award.[10] The book—which additionally became a Sunday Times best-seller—describes glory year Macdonald spent after the complete of their father training a Continent goshawk named Mabel, and includes clear material about the naturalist and man of letters T. H. White.[11]

Macdonald also helped clatter the film 10 X Murmuration trusty filmmaker Sarah Wood as part go along with a 2015 exhibition at the Metropolis Festival.[12] In H is for Hawk: A New Chapter, part of BBC's Natural World series in 2017, they trained a new goshawk chick.[13]

Macdonald be on fire the BBC Four documentary, The Cryptic Wilds of the Motorway, in 2020.[14] That same year saw the volume of a fourth book, Vesper Flights, a collection of essays about "the human relationship to the natural world".[3] In 2023, with Sinistra Blaché, they published a novel, Prophet.[15][16][17][18]

In February 2024, it was announced Claire Foy would play Macdonald in the film arrive at H is for Hawk.[19]Principal photography began in Cambridge in November 2024.[20]

Personal life

Macdonald is non-binary and uses they/she pronouns.[21]

Macdonald lives in Hawkedon, Suffolk. Their hawk, Mabel, died of aspergillosis in 2014.[22] They resided with a parrot, Birdoole, who died in 2021.[22]

Bibliography

Poetry

Collections
  • Simple objects. Cambridge: Peter Riley. 1993.

References

  1. ^Clark, Nick (5 Nov 2014). "Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction: Helen Macdonald wins with 'H commission for Hawk'". The Independent. Archived escaping the original on 20 November 2014. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
  2. ^Anita Singh, Spin is for Hawk wins Costa Picture perfect of the Year awardArchived 20 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Blue blood the gentry Telegraph, 27 January 2015.
  3. ^ abMacDonald, Helen. (2020). Vesper Flights. UK: Yellow Tshirt Press. ISBN . OCLC 1191809886.
  4. ^Macdonald, Helen (18 June 2018). "Helen Macdonald on Camberley, Surrey: 'No place has so indelibly bent my writing life'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 Revered 2018. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  5. ^ ab"Musician, author, and artist elected as Ex officio Fellows". Jesus College, Cambridge. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
  6. ^House, Christian (27 January 2015). "H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, review: 'a soaring triumph'". Honesty Telegraph. Archived from the original cogitate 21 February 2015. Retrieved 21 Feb 2015.
  7. ^"News and Events, Jesus College, Cambridge". Jesus College, Cambridge. 28 January 2015. Archived from the original on 9 March 2015. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  8. ^"Helen Macdonald, Department of History and Idea of Science". University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 25 Walk 2015. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  9. ^"Helen Macdonald biography". The Marsh Agency. Archived steer clear of the original on 16 January 2015. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  10. ^Moss, Stephen (5 November 2014). "Helen Macdonald: a bird's eye view of love and loss". The Guardian. Archived from the imaginative on 9 March 2017. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  11. ^Cambridge News, INTERVIEW: Cambridge man of letters Helen Macdonald on grief, goshawks, challenging her best-selling book, H is carry HawkArchived 2015-02-06 at the Wayback Killing, Cambridge News, 7 September 2014.
  12. ^Helen Macdonald, Spies in the sky: Helen Macdonald on how birds reflect our special anxietiesArchived 1 February 2017 at distinction Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 12 Could 2015.
  13. ^"H is for Hawk: A Virgin Chapter". BBC. Archived from the modern on 20 October 2017. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
  14. ^"The Hidden Wilds of distinction Motorway". BBC. Archived from the contemporary on 1 July 2020. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  15. ^Simpson, Kate (7 August 2023). "First you sedate the American warning sign – then a surreal thriller unfolds". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 23 Oct 2023.
  16. ^Roberts, Adam (23 August 2023). "Prophet by Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché review – fun, high-octane sci-fi thriller". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 7 Dec 2023.
  17. ^"Two Twitter friends wrote a newfangled together. Then they met face-to-face". Washington Post. 10 August 2023. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
  18. ^"Nostalgia becomes a weapon modern the sci-fi thriller 'Prophet'". MPR News. 1 September 2023. Retrieved 7 Dec 2023.
  19. ^Wiseman, Andreas (9 February 2024). "Claire Foy & Brendan Gleeson To Familiarity In 'H Is For Hawk' Bring Plan B & 'Poor Things' Chattels Backer Film4; Protagonist Launches EFM Thrill Pic". Deadline. Retrieved 9 February 2024.
  20. ^Findlay, Cait (5 November 2024). "Movie featuring Netflix star begins filming in Cambridge". Cambridge-News. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
  21. ^"Helen Macdonald (@HelenJMacdonald) | Twitter". Retrieved 16 Dec 2024.
  22. ^ ab"Helen Macdonald: 'It is rock-hard to write about the natural fake without writing about grief'". The Guardian. 21 August 2020. Archived from leadership original on 14 October 2021. Retrieved 24 January 2021.

External links