ARC provided by Netgalley

I found this book to be a real joy to read. The diary format means it’s easy to pick up and read throughout the day, and in fact it makes it a very quick and engaging read. The timeline travels from complete lockdown to easing, and frames the experiences in the wood against that. It feels like a clandestine, intimate look into not only the goshawk’s lives, but the wider New Forest fauna – another part the diary format aids in is shifting between the various locations and animals/birds.

The goshawks, foxes and various other birds and animals feel familiar by the closing pages but don’t end up anthropomorphised, just animals going about their lives, something I’ve been looking for in nature writing for quite a while to balance out the various books I’ve read that do go overboard with humanising nature.

Goshawk Summer also delves into rewilding, nature politics, our impact on the world and in a small section, sport hunting. Animal reintroduction is incidentally a focal point – Goshawks were reintroduced (though nobody knows how) and a Pine Marten is caught on camera, along side how humans irresponsible and harmful interactions with the environment can harm those efforts (and even already present animal lives, like the foxes). It’s a really compelling book overall that’s an easy read, fun, engaging and might serve for some as a jumping off point into more nature/rewilding focused books.