The second book by acclaimed falconer Ronald Stevens, first published in 1956, is a fascinating, utterly absorbing story. Falconer Ronald Stevens' memoir of his gyrfalcon, captured in Iceland and brought back to Stevens' home in England in the 1950s. It is the story of the developing relationship between man and bird as Genghis is weaned from his first instinctive distrust and terror to acceptance and at last to exhilarating co-operation in the high delights of falconry.

Ronald Stevens' profile page

Ronald Stevens was born in England and privately educated. Not wanting to join the family business, he became overseer of his father's cattle farm in Worcestershire. There he pursued his interest in ornithology and cultivated a large collection of waterfowl, which was ultimately moved to an estate in Shropshire in the 1930s. However, the estate was requisitioned for military use in World War Two, and the collection was destroyed. Following this, Stevens dedicated his life to falconry, a sport that completely captivated him; few falconers developed greater or more enduring reputations for their passion and commitment. In 1956, to find solitude and to escape the overgrowth of bracken on the English moors, Stevens moved permanently to Connemara in County Galway, Ireland, where he lived until his death in early 1994 at age 91. Described as a quiet, kind man, gentle by nature and always somewhat embarrassed by his fame, he was an able and painstaking tutor in falconry to those who requested his help. He maintained an enormous correspondence with falconers throughout the world and was always welcoming to those who traveled to his isolated home. Stevens authored four books: Laggard, The Taming of Genghis, Observations on Modern Falconry, and the biographical, A Life With Birds.