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Rating: 
Summary: Informative for novices - necessary for the more experienced
Review: Being in the novice category, I applaud Chichester's ability to capture my attention and hold my interest. I found the story-like quality quite appealing and informative facts offered in managable doses. The characters have charm and create connections that leave the reader wanting more. I would imagine more experienced falconers could find common story themes in Chicester's work. A good read aloud for the younger set when offered in segments. Where is the next adventure?
Rating: 
Summary: High Flying Adventure
Review: Something is missing from American falconry, something old. As you hunt the doomed woodlot behind Wal-Mart, imagine this: You're on a horse, on a windy crest of high pasture bordered by a stone wall two thousand years old. Your great grandfather was born three miles from this spot in a farmhouse that still bears his name. Tiny white flecks of sheep graze in the valley below. Above them, a mixed flock of jackdaws and crows forms a tight whirling spiral evading the efforts of a young falcon, moments ago released from your glove. In Northumberland, the far border of England and Scotland, this could be any day in the last eight hundred years. It could be yesterday. For all our modern improvements and vast open spaces, American falconry has nothing like it. For Virginia writer Lee Chichester, the lure to see and take part in such ancient sport was irresistible. In the Spring of 1995, she saw a notice in the Hawk Chalk calling "junior falconers" to intern at the National Avian Research Center, a falcon breeding operation run by Dr. Nick Fox in Carmarthen, United Kingdom. Applicants would assist in all facets of falcon rearing and training. The latter half of this five-month engagement would be spent hawking crows in the rolling border country far to the north. Chichester had at that time flown three passage red-tails, mostly at squirrels and mostly alone, so counted herself a junior falconer and applied. Falcons and Foxes in the UK: The Making of Hunter is the story of this "one time only" falconry experience. As a freelance journalist twenty years in practice, Chichester weaves an engaging, full-length narrative around what for lesser writers would be another essay on "How I spent my summer vacation." Chichester skillfully supplies her story with moments of suspense and with well-drawn characters, of which she herself proves complex, sympathetic and believable: a falconer young in the sport though older than her fellow interns; far separated from her husband and close friends; a reluctant ambassador of America and American falconry; a woman seeking experience and respect in a sometimes condescending masculine culture. For the student of falconry, there is plenty of detail in Chichester's vivid accounts of the perils of wild hack, the meticulous job of captive propagation and the raw thrills of the haute volerie, the high flight of the falcon as seen from the back of a galloping horse. If you share even a twinge of Lee Chichester's spirit of adventure or her fascination with this beautiful and ancient branch of our sport, let her lead you through the pasture gate and on to the chase.
Rating:
Summary: Falconry Brought to Life
Review: This captivating book weaves the technical details of modern falconry with historic lore and the author's personal journey into the world of hunting with raptors. Chichester brings falconry alive. An informative read for birders or anyone interested in the fascinating world of falconry.
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