THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING
WINNER OF THE BOOKS ARE MY BAG READERS AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION, HATCHARDS AND BIOGRAPHERS' CLUB FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE
A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE HAY FESTIVAL, SUNDAY TIMES, THE TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, SPECTATOR, ECONOMIST 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

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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.

Prizes

Winner of Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2025 (UK),Winner of Wainwright Prize Book of the Year 2025 (UK),Winner of Books Are My Bag Readers Awards - Non-Fiction 2025 (UK),Short-listed for Waterstones Book of the Year 2024 (UK),Short-listed for Hatchards and Biographers' Club First Biography Prize 2024 (UK),Short-listed for The British Book Awards - Non-Fiction Narrative Book of the Year 2025 (UK),Short-listed for Women's Prize for Non-Fiction 2025 (UK),Short-listed for The British Audio Awards - Best Audiobook: Non-Fiction 2025 (UK),Short-listed for The British Audio Awards - Best Performance: Narrator 2025 (UK)

A great and important tale for our times -- MICHAEL MORPURGO
This is more than a wildlife memoir, it's a philosophical masterpiece -- CLARE BALDING
This book is exceptional. A simply wonderful story, profoundly beautiful -- CHRIS PACKHAM
A glorious book - for its warmth, its precision, its joy. It's not dreamy or romantic about the natural world - it's something far better than that -- KATHERINE RUNDELL
A fascinating meditation on nature, friendship, renewal and love. It helps us pay attention to the world around us, and, in doing so, rediscover ourselves -- ELIF SHAFAK
This is a book of sheer joy and goodness in our times often marked by dark and troubling events. It transports you to a world of long-lost innocence and makes you want to hug the world * * Financial Times, 'Best Books of 2024' * *
A nourishing nature memoir at its finest * * Sunday Times, 'Books of the Year' * *
Raising Hare is a tale of hope, channelled through the enduring and improbable bond between a human and a wild animal. It's a love letter to the natural world * * The Times * *
In steady, elegant, whimsy-free prose, Dalton documents minute observations of her daily coexistence with the leveret. This is indeed a remarkable debut * * Spectator * *
This is the most gorgeous piece of nature writing published this year, and one that ought to become a classic of the genre. [It is] the soul-soothing read we all need right now * * iNews * *

Chloe Dalton is a writer, political adviser and foreign policy specialist. She spent over a decade working in the UK Parliament and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and has advised, and written for and with, numerous prominent figures. She divides her time between London and her home in the English countryside. Raising Hare is her first book. It won the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing and was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction, selected as a Waterstones Book of the Year and as the Hay Festival Book of the Year. It was a Critics Best Books pick for The Times, Financial Times, Guardian, Spectator and iNews and was Waterstones Non-Fiction Book of the Month.

chloedalton.uk | @chloedaltonuk