Review - "Raising Hare," Chloe Dalton

 This is a delightful book to read on early spring days when nature is re-awakening.

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

Burrowing into Books

Raising Hare, Chloe Dalton

March 21, 2026

 

“...I startled hares that ran and leapt, cresting the tops of the

grass with a smooth flowing motion, dolphins of the meadow.”

                                                                                                                                Raising Hare, Chloe Dalton

 

Ms. Dalton’s story, for which she won the 2025 Wainwright Prize (awarded for nature, conservation and environment writing), tells of her growing awareness of the natural world. She had spent ten years as a writer, political adviser and foreign policy specialist, working in Parliament and at the Foreign Commonwealth Office. While she lived in London, she also owned a renovated stone barn in the English countryside as a weekend place.

 

It was in February 2021, while she was living in and working out of her rural retreat due to the Pandemic that she found a week-old leveret, a baby hare. She picked it up. After checking with a local conservationist, and her sister who owns a small farm and who offered advice on feeding, she decided to keep the palm-sized leveret. Her story is one of discovery, not simply of how she raised the hare in such a way it would not become domesticated, but also of Ms. Dalton’s encounter with many aspects of nature – the symbiosis between prey and predator, the instinct of motherhood that transcends species, and the plant life that provides food and protection.

 

She appreciates the complexities of man: his dreams, his innovative skills, and his desire to improve his condition. But she worries how those often conflicted with nature and wildlife: “The competing imperatives of feeding the nation and protecting the environment are still unreconciled.” Raising the hare gave her a perspective on life unavailable on the pavements of London or in the hallways of Parliament.

 

Because of her wish that the hare should return to the wild, it was never given a name, despite the lapse of two and more years during which the hare would come and go from her home. It was only when the hare gave birth that she learned its sex.

 

In her last chapter she reflects on what she learned from the hare – to appreciate the world around her, to “cherish the days she [the hare] has given me of her own free will.” As to the fate of the hare, she does not know. It would sometime leave for a few days, only to return for a short visit. Hares generally live only three to five years in the wild. But Ms. Dalton ends her story poignantly: “I will remember her leaving, but will know that before she did, she always, first, looked back.”

 

This delightful book, with illustrations of hares by Denise Nestor, was first published in England in 2024.