“At a time when so much of modern life pulls us away from the living world, Be More Bird calls us gently back. With poetic prose, Candida Meyrick draws us into the ancient art of falconry, where graced conversations with hawks and the animate earth unfold. In these pages, our wild hearts are given new wings. A beautiful, restorative book.”
—Lyanda Haupt, author of Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit

"The unapologetically elegant and dangerous Bird teaches us about connection, the vulnerability of power, and the hunger for both food and joy. A reminder that life’s lessons are found not in the objects we hold, but in the spirits and bodies of the beings around us."
—Susan Cormier, author of Dead Bees Still Sting

“For a pigeon rescuer to rave about a book about a hawk must mean it is something spectacular. And that Candida Meyrick’s book is. Imagine going on a walk with someone who sees the world as a painter would, speaks like a poet, and is carrying on her arm a creature so beautiful it makes your whole world vibrate. You are transfixed like a child experiencing wonder and you float (or soar) the entire way home. That’s what it is like to read Be More Bird. The writing is stunning; Bird is stunning; the relationship between Candida and Bird is out of this world.”
—Brian Buckbee, author of We Should All Be Birds

"A small masterpiece, written with heart, self-belief and wisdom. Wonderful!"
—Paul Theroux

“Be More Bird is a beautiful, deeply thought-provoking book filled with lessons about nature, about our relationships with the natural world and with each other. Candida writes with great joy and humility. We learn about hawks in history, language and culture, about their role in society over millennia. This partnership, between woman and hawk, is one of equality, reciprocity and mutual understanding. Candida finds freedom in a wild creature who is feral but accepts friendship. Falconry, she writes, has the power to both tame and release the wild in us. Most enchanting of all, we feel Candida's joy as she witnesses ‘the flow state of creation’ that is Bird in flight.”
—Annie Worsley

“As a long-term admirer of Candida Meyrick’s novels I’m delighted to see her returning to print with this subtle and beguiling memoir.”
—DJ Taylor

“Candida Meyrick’s lyrical account of hunting daily with her hawk is a love song to the splendour and wildness, the fragility and interdependence of life.”
—Geraldine Bedell

Be More Bird is Candida Meyrick’s first work of non-fiction. She has published six previous novels under the pen name Candida Clark and written journalism, short fiction, and poetry. She lives in the United Kingdom.

1. Hawk – Sophia Houdini White Wing
2. As an antidote to overwhelm, take the hawk’s-eye view of things
3. Gratitude. Heart-quickening joy in adversity
4. The journey is the destination
5. Follow the thread of your heart’s desiring, however far or strange
6. Patience. Stay true to your higher self, even when days pass without reward
7. How to look mortality in the eye and still not flinch
8. Only connect
9. However much it changes, it’s the same sky
10. Live each moment as most yourself
11. You can’t step into the same river twice
12. Hold your ground, you’re stronger than you think
13. Hearts of love pound strongest
14. Travel light
15. Accept interruptions, reversals and retreats
16. Stay humble. Keep working at it
17. Whatever the balance of nature/nurture, we’re better together
18. Warm, blue sky, later than usual
19. How to end things with grace
20. Just show up; and when you can’t, don’t
21. Accept the no-fly days of thick fog

Acknowledgements
Endnotes