Chloe Dalton: Raising Hare

Saturday 31 May, 2:30pm, QUAD DE1 3AS

This event will be filmed and made available as a digital recording after the Festival. Available for purchase here.

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.

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025

SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024

SHORTLISTED FOR THE HATCHARDS AND BIOGRAPHERS' CLUB FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE

A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE HAY FESTIVAL, SUNDAY TIMES, THE TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, SPECTATOR AND iNEWS

'A beautiful book' - ANGELINA JOLIE

'I will be recommending this to everyone' - MATT HAIG

'Quietly profound, beautifully written, Hare is now lodged in my heart' - TRACY CHEVALIER