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Raising Hare

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Raising Hare

By: Chloe Dalton
Narrated by: Louise Brealey
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Summary

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.

©2024 Chloe Dalton (P)2024 Canongate Books Ltd Animals Biological Sciences Outdoors & Nature Science Heartfelt Inspiring Thought-Provoking
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Critic reviews

'I savoured every carefully chosen and perfectly polished word and I cared so deeply about Hare that I found myself holding my breath . . . This is 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)

'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)
All stars
Most relevant
Occasionally overly critical of farming practice-having been farming for over 50 years and cared for nature all that time it really hurts that some people are so critical of our care and work yet expect food to be produced at minimal cost.

The author’s respect for balance of nature.

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Just so well written and surely a lesson to everyone about the way wildlife should be protected. Modern agriculture and food production has a lot to answer for. We need more wild spaces!

Outstanding

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This is a profoundly moving memoir but also from a lay person’s perspective important contribution to understanding the behaviour of the hare. I listened to it so slowly, many times pausing and rewinding just so I could properly understand and picture the detailed descriptions that Chloe made of each of the hares’ actions.

The ending left me sobbing.

Profound

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I found the book so powerful , to have experienced such a wonderful part of the natural world and write from the heart, I cried and didn’t want the end to come, but thank you it’s made me want to go out and explore my surroundings.

Beautiful

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What an absolutely beautiful story - an account of the life of a hare from birth onwards, being looked after by a woman who learned as she went along. The descriptions of the hare’s daily life were wonderful, and the continuation of the story as she had her own babies and still trusted Chloe enough to raise them around her house and garden. I felt like I was there with them, learning new things about hares and how what we humans do affects their lives and habitats. I could go on for hours, but just read or listen to this book!

Beautiful

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