Helen MacDonald read English at New Hall from 1989-1992. After Cambridge she worked in falcon research in Wales and the Gulf States. She returned to Cambridge, eventually teaching at the department of History and Philosophy of Science. In 2014 she published 'H is for Hawk', which won the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction and became a Sunday Times best-seller. Her other books include 'Shaler's Fish' and 'Falcon'.