Helen Macdonald

Their existence gives the lie to the thought that the wild is always something untouched by human hearts and hands. The wild can be human work.

Here’s a word. Bereavement. Or, Bereaved. Bereft. It’s from the Old English bereafian, meaning ‘to deprive of, take away, seize, rob’. Robbed. Seized. It happens to everyone. But you feel it alone.

The kind of madness I had was different. It was quiet, and very, very dangerous. It was a madness designed to keep me sane.