Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.

Vesper Flights

Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
2 of 2 copies available
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. From the bestselling author of H is for Hawk comes Vesper Flights, a transcendent collection of essays about the human relationship to the natural world. Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best-loved writing along with new pieces covering a thrilling range of subjects. There are essays here on headaches, on catching swans, on hunting mushrooms, on twentiethcentury spies, on numinous experiences and high-rise buildings; on nests and wild pigs and the tribulations of farming ostriches. Vesper Flights is a book about observation, fascination, time, memory, love and loss and how we make the world around us. Moving and frank, personal and political, it confirms Helen Macdonald as one of this century's greatest nature writers.
  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

  • Formats

  • Languages

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In this volume of more than three dozen short pieces, author/narrator Helen Macdonald introduces listeners to a literary Wunderkammer--a collection of "strange things . . . concerned with the quality of wonder." Although some essays begin with a human-oriented subject (migraines, a lonely childhood, Brexit), almost all of them make a connection to the natural world, especially birds. Macdonald's unforced, gentle performance allows her passion for and wonder at nature to shine. By skillfully modulating her volume and varying her cadence, she puts listeners under her spell. Her relationship to plants and animals is grounded; while she acknowledges the complexities of British traditions (fox hunting) and bemoans climate change, she isn't preachy, instead focusing on nature as healer, refuge, and source of never-ending awe. C.B.L. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading
Check out what's being checked out right now This service is made possible by the local automated network, member libraries, and the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.