Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton has been named Hay Festival Book of the Year 2024 after hundreds of book lovers nominated their favourite titles of the year online.

A meditation on freedom, trust, loss, and our relationship with the natural world, explored through the story of one woman’s unlikely friendship with a wild hare, Raising Hare has charmed readers and critics alike since its publication last month.

Chloe Dalton is a writer, political adviser and foreign policy specialist.

She has spent more than a decade working in the UK Parliament and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and has advised, and written for and with, numerous prominent figures.

She divides her time between London and her home in the English countryside. Raising Hare is her first book.

Speaking about the Book of the Year award, Hay Festival CEO Julie Finch said: “At the end of each year, we ask our audience to tell us about the books they couldn’t put down.

“The resulting submissions are a varied and engaging snapshot of the year’s most impactful fiction, non-fiction and poetry.”

Ms Finch continued: “Since its release, Raising Hare has become a fast Festival favourite – a classic tale of transformation imbued with new questions around what it means to be human. We are delighted to celebrate it as our Book of the Year.”

Award winner, Chloe Dalton said: “I am so grateful to the many readers who have taken Raising Hare to their hearts. My life has been turned upside down by a single extraordinary hare, and I hope the story will bring as much happiness to others as it has done to me.

“My thanks go to the Hay Festival for this vote of confidence, which means the world to me as a first-time author,” she said.