Rupert Griffiths

Author  |  Birdman  |  Hong Kong

Hong Kong, 1985. Five boys discover the wildlife markets across the border in Shenzhen: three British expats, two local brothers. They buy birds of prey destined for the soup pot, smuggle them home hidden among pigeons, and teach themselves falconry in the hills above the city.

I was one of them. By fourteen I had stood before a magistrate. By sixteen I had trained and freed a peregrine falcon. Fifteen years later, I was releasing confiscated falcons back into the wild for the Hong Kong government, using everything the markets had taught me.

This is a memoir about a colonial childhood, a friendship across two worlds, and the line between rescuing a wild creature and wanting to possess it — a line I crossed many times before I could see it.

Currently seeking representation. The manuscript is complete, with the author's original photographs of the birds.