So White will be talking about how he is training his hawk and I’ll find that hard to read and will be wondering when it will end and whether I should continue reading the book, when suddenly, there will be a page on the history of falconry or on how his hawk regarded him with contempt and he couldn’t do anything about it, and I’ll smile and will continue reading. As for the central pairing between man and the titular beast, well, I couldn't help but get completely caught up in that love/hate mess.

Love asketh but himself to please, To bind another to his delight, Joys in another's loss of ease, and And builds a hell in heaven's despite.White is best known for his magnificent re-telling of the Arthurian saga in his Once and Future King tetralogy — The Sword in the Stone, The Queen of Air and Darkness, The Ill-Made Knight, and The Candle in the Wind. The project did not go well — the goshawk escaped — and White abandoned his plans to publish an account of the training.

To fly: the horrible aerial toad, the silent-feathered owl, the hump-back aviating Richard III, he made toward me close the ground. It didn't quite make it to a five star for me, but it was worlds better than I expected, and when it comes to these old dead white dudes, that's oftentimes the best one can hope for. I also liked the discussions of the weather, the descriptions of the English countryside and wildlife (very Colin Dann! FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED BY WHITE: PERHAPS THE BEST POSSIBLE ASSOCIATION COPY, WITH A WARM AND LENGTHY INSCRIPTION TO HIS GOOD FRIEND SYDNEY COCKERELL - CONNOISEUR, BIBLIOPHILE, AND DIRECTOR OF THE FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM.Slowly man and bird entered a state of delirium and intoxication, of attraction and repulsion that looked very much like love. The journey takes him from an encounter with a stuffed Goshawk in a glass case, through travels into supposed Goshawk territories in Britain, to Berlin - where he finds the bird at ease in the city. White era una persona solitaria, aveva avuto una infanzia difficile e cercò per tutta la vita l'amore, non trovandolo.