THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
2024 HAY FESTIVAL BOOK OF THE YEAR
A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES, THE TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, SPECTATOR, OBSERVER, THE TORONTO STAR, THE HERALD MAGAZINE AND iNEWS
‘Imagine holding a baby hare and bottle feeding it. Imagine it living under your roof, drumming on your duvet to attract your attention. Imagine the adult hare, over two years later, sleeping in the house by day, running freely in the fields by night and raising leverets of its own in your garden. This happened to me.’
Raising Hare tells the story of the unusual experience of raising a leveret to adulthood and beyond. Drawing from the extraordinary opportunity of observing a hare at close quarters in a relationship of trust - as it comes and goes freely from the wild - it is an appeal for better understanding, appreciation and protection for hares wherever they are found. Featuring illustrations by. Denise Nestor. Cover Design by Gill Healey Audiobook read by Louise Brealey
ILLUSTRATOR: DENISE NESTOR | DESIGN: GILL HEELEY
AUDIOBOOK READ BY: LOUISE BREALEY
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‘A glorious book – for its warmth, its precision, its joy. It’s not dreamy or romantic about the natural world – it’s something far better than that’
KATHERINE RUNDELL
‘More than a wildlife memoir, it’s a philosophical masterpiece ruminating on our place as human beings in nature.’
CLARE BALDING
‘Raising Hare is an astounding achievement. Not since I read Salar the Salmon by Henry Williamson have I witnessed such insight into a creature of the wild. This is a great and important tale for our times, for all of us, in the same league as Ted Hughes, Alice Oswald, Thomas Hardy and indeed Henry Williamson himself. I am so pleased Chloe Dalton told us about raising hare. I will not forget it and nor will anyone who reads it’
MICHAEL MORPURGO
‘Written with tenderness and lyricism from someone who has taken the time to reconnect to nature and the wild within. A beautiful book.’
ANGELINA JOLIE
‘This book is exceptional. It made me smile out loud, such a magical tale of a world turned upside down by a fragile wild thing – a leveret lost, a life found. A simply wonderful story, profoundly beautiful’
CHRIS PACKHAM
‘A beautiful book that makes you think profoundly about how we so often tune out the natural world around us. Chloe Dalton is a tender, curious, wise, mind-expanding guide, connecting readers with the wild we humans once knew so well. I will be recommending this to everyone’
MATT HAIG
‘A captivating and uplifting story about a chance encounter that proved utterly transformative. Beautifully written, touching and thought-provoking. It’s stayed with me weeks after finishing the final sentence’
CATHY NEWMAN
‘Utterly bewitched by this marvel of nature writing by Chloe Dalton with glorious illustrations by Denise Nestor’
CAROLINE SANDERSON
‘A moving, magical blend of memoir and nature writing . . . beautifully written, with a luminous, fairytale quality’
JOHN O’CONNELL
Chloe Dalton’s experience with a hare was an unusual one, and she went to all lengths required to ensure that the hare remained a wild animal. She would caution strongly against any attempt to keep a hare as a pet, and recommends following the RSPCA advice on hares and rabbits in the wild which can be found in the button below