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Raising Hare

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025

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Raising Hare

By: Chloe Dalton
Narrated by: Louise Brealey
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THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING
WINNER OF BOOKS ARE MY BAG READERS AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION, HATCHARDS AND BIOGRAPHERS' CLUB FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE
A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE HAY FESTIVAL, SUNDAY TIMES, THE TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, SPECTATOR AND iNEWS

'A beautiful book' - ANGELINA JOLIE
'I will be recommending this to everyone' - MATT HAIG
'Quietly profound, beautifully written, Hare is now lodged in my heart' - TRACY CHEVALIER

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Imagine you could hold a baby hare and bottle-feed it. Imagine that it lived under your roof and lolloped around your bedroom at night, drumming on the duvet cover when it wanted your attention. Imagine that, over two years later, it still ran in from the fields when you called it and snoozed in your house for hours on end. This happened to me.

When lockdown led busy professional Chloe to leave the city and return to the countryside of her childhood, she never expected to find herself custodian of a newly born hare. Yet when she finds the creature, endangered, alone and no bigger than her palm, she is compelled to give it a chance at survival.

Raising Hare chronicles their journey together and the challenges of caring for the leveret and preparing for its return to the wild. We witness an extraordinary relationship between human and animal, rekindling our sense of awe towards nature and wildlife. This improbable bond of trust serves to remind us that the most remarkable experiences, inspiring the most hope, often arise when we least expect them.

 Animals Biological Sciences Outdoors & Nature Science Heartfelt Inspiring Thought-Provoking
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Critic reviews

"A great and important tale for our times" (MICHAEL MORPURGO)
"This is more than a wildlife memoir, it’s a philosophical masterpiece" (CLARE BALDING)
"This book is exceptional. A simply wonderful story, profoundly beautiful" (CHRIS PACKHAM)
"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)
"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)
"Raising Hare is an observant and enchanting meditation on nurturing a wild creature, capturing the fragile wonder that can emerge between human and animal" (QUEEN CAMILLA)
"A fascinating meditation on nature, friendship, renewal and love [ . . . ] awakening in us a sense of wonder. It helps us pay attention to the world around us, and, in doing so, rediscover ourselves" (ELIF SHAFAK)
"This book tells a story of true friendship with great respect . . . If you love animals, this book is incredibly beautiful and moving and helped me see nature differently. I think it’s the best non-fiction book of the year" (ELIZABETH GILBERT)
"This is a book of sheer joy and goodness in our times often marked by dark and troubling events. It transports you to a world of long-lost innocence and makes you want to hug the world"
"A nourishing nature memoir at its finest"
All stars
Most relevant
I am a person who tended to groan at the presence, at least in my part of the UK, at the ever present images, cards, and figurines of hares and more in gift shops, garden centres and the like. This book has banished my groans! I selected this title having seen that it had been short listed for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, and generally select one of the short-list as a kind of self-bet as to the winner. We wait and see. This has to be the most affecting, restrained, marvelling and intimate books that I have ever listened to it read. It is made all the more so by a wonderfully sympathetic, intelligent performer in Louise (Loo) Brealey. The chronicle of thoughts, firmly drawn descriptions, observations, reflections, self-knowing, views and wonders after a believed abandoned young leveret in need of care is by turns a joyous, heart-stopping, delightful, amusing, revealing and unashamedly honest. Few if any cannot listen to the audio-book and be captured spellbound, even those sections that deal with how ignorant man has viewed and treated hares across time and the world. The title of this review is taken from the excellent conversation between author and performer at the end of the audio-book. This audio-book deserves to be selected and taken to heart. It will change perceptions. Fully recommended.

Very Special: Memoire, Natural History, Manifesto

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A beautiful moving account of a relationship between a woman and a hair, how they accepted each other. It has resonance in these troubled times, how the natural world is so important and meaningful to us. Thank you for sharing your experience with me.

The natural world is so important and meaningful to us.

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I loved the respect and love running through this book, how if we look, nature is the best guide. How we find true rewards in slowing down and letting go. The research elements were enlightening and so needed. How the human grew alongside the Hare, giving in to her own true nature. A powerful meditation on letting go and allowing our truth to guide us.

A Powerful Meditation on letting go

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A moving and fascinating meditation on freedom, trust, loss, and our relationship with the natural world, explored through the story of one woman’s unlikely friendship with a wild hare.

Imagine you could hold a baby hare and bottle-feed it. Imagine that it lived under your roof and lolloped around your bedroom at night, drumming on the duvet cover when it wanted your attention. Imagine that, over two years later, it still ran in from the fields when you called it and slept in your house for hours on end and gave birth to leverets in your study. For political advisor and speechwriter Chloe Dalton, who spent lockdown deep in the English countryside, far away from her usual busy London life, this became her unexpected reality.

In February 2021, Dalton stumbles upon a newborn hare—a leveret—that had been chased by a dog. Fearing for its life, she brings it home, only to discover how impossible it is to rear a wild hare, most of whom perish in captivity from either shock or starvation. Through trial and error, she learns to feed and care for the leveret with every intention of returning it to the wilderness. Instead, it becomes her constant companion, wandering the fields and woods at night and returning to Dalton’s house by day. Though Dalton feared that the hare would be preyed upon by foxes, stoats, feral cats, raptors, and even people, she never tried to restrict it to the house. Each time the hare leaves, Chloe knows she may never see it again. Yet she also understands that to confine it would be its own kind of death.

My comments:

I don't usually read memwa's and biographical books however recently I have read a few in the last year or two and so am starting to read ones based on my interests. I really found this book interesting learning more about the habits and behaviours of Hares. I liked the way despite not knowing much about them she experemented and took care of it. I loved the friendship and trust Chloe built with the hare. This is a lovely story and shows how experiences can change our lives and outlook.

Really interesting and informative book.

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I immersed myself deeply into this very moving story which awakens so many layers of awareness - thank you Chloe for what will forever be one of my most favourites books

I felt like I was there with them - the writing is so detailed

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