Falcon was originally published in 2006, before Macdonald’s awardwinning H Is for Hawk. The two share a fascination with “how we use nature as a mirror”. As she says in the new preface, Macdonald wrote this book instead of completing her doctoral dissertation because the more popular format allowed her to include anecdotes and stories that she felt were central to our relationship to falcons and to nature. For although she is passionate about birds of prey, and especially falcons, what makes this book so remarkable is not just that it is beautifully written, but that it never loses sight of the big picture: the way these exquisite aerial predators – the fastest animals that have ever lived – have been used as constantly changing repositories for human meanings. As Sam Spade says in Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, the bird is “the stuff that dreams are made of”. Macdonald weaves a memorable account of this most beguiling of creatures, from its earliest shamanistic uses to Marvel Comics’ first black superhero, the Falcon. A master class on how to write cultural history. PDS
• Falcon is published by Reaktion. To order a copy for £7.37 (RRP £8.99) go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99.
