Helen Macdonald - Reading & Conversation with Hilary Adam White

“What science does is what I would like more literature to do too: show us that we are living in an exquisitely complicated world that is not all about us. It does not belong to us alone. It never has done. " - Helen Macdonald (Vesper Flights)

The writer and naturalist Helen Macdonald is probably best known for their remarkable best-selling memoir H is for Hawk, recently released as a feature film with Claire Foy in the leading role. Probably one of the most important and influential nature books to be published in recent years, it is a deeply affecting work that took the literary world by storm, winning a host of awards and accolades.

Helen Macdonald has since written other acclaimed works including the miraculous Vesper Flights, a wonderfully abundant book of essays about humankind’s diminishing connection with the natural world. Helen is a rare thinker, activist, writer and naturalist who leads us into the natural world with extraordinary empathy but also a deep sense of practical appreciation. The Shaking Bog is honoured to have them as a special guest of the festival.

“Helen MacDonald is one of the best nature writers now working.” Simon Ings, Telegraph “Books of the Year”

Hilary Adam White will host the conversation with Helen MacDonald. He is a writer, journalist and conservationist. City of Hawks, his own literary memoir about his native Dublin and its raptors will be published by Penguin in Spring 2027.

Helen Macdonald

Helen Macdonald is a writer, poet, naturalist and historian of science. Their books include H is for Hawk, which won many prizes including the Costa Book of the Year and the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, and the Sunday Times bestselling Vesper Flights. They live in Suffolk with their two parrots. SPONSOR INFO The Shaking Bog is supported by Wicklow County Council Arts Office through the Arts Festival Award Scheme.