Raising Hare: A Memoir

Dalton, a British writer working in Parliament and the Foreign Service, leaves her hectic London life for the countryside during COVID lockdowns. She finds a leveret, a baby wild hare, alone in the lane outside her cottage. She knows that wild hares are not good at surviving in captivity, and yet she takes it in, worried for its safety away from other hares. Without caging or confining the hare, she finds herself in close companionship with the animal, who comes and goes over the next few years. Dalton can see up close the hare’s habits, features, and vulnerabilities, and she watches it grow and develop over three years and eventually watches it raise young of its own in her house and garden. This close observation of a single species brings new awareness of the interconnectedness of plants, animals and seasons.