The High Flight: 50 Poems Inspired by Emily Brontë's Hawk

Emma Conally-Barklem is an author, poet, yoga teacher and workshop facilitator based in Yorkshire.

This collection takes its creative inspiration from one of the few details known about Emily Brontë. It is believed she rescued then kept a Merlin hawk who she called Nero. Her bird of prey soars through history and the West Yorkshire landscape both quarry and predator. Conally-Barklem explores what it means to be captive and to be wild, the condition of the falconer, its lore and mystery through the enigmatic Brontë sister who stands both inside and outside of time.

‘Conally-Barklem slices phrases from the ether and digs deep in the recalcitrant soil, while two imperious creatures circle above, casting baleful glances at the world. 

By turns mythic, soaring, earthbound and unyielding, this collection is a dazzling addition to the Brontë canon.’

Karen Powell, author of Fifteen Wild Decembers

‘A truly astonishing collection bristling with piercing insight and originality- this is Conally-Barklem at the height of her powers’

Sharon Wright, journalist and Brontë biographer

Conally-Barklem’s poetry is radiant. She is one of the most interesting British poets working today’

Graham Watson, author of The Invention of Charlotte Brontë