How to Read a Tree is a book to discover the simple principles of shapes and patterns you see in trees, and what they mean. Each tree we meet is filled with signs that reveal its life and the landscape it stands in. The clues are easy to spot if you know what to look for. You’ll learn rare skills that can be applied each time you pass a tree, whether you are in a town or wilder spot. Trees can tell us about the land, water, people, animals, weather and time. And about their lives.
If planting trees, learn how to make gardens safe for pets. Use no-dig gardening to help wildlife and know trees to avoid near horses (including yew & oak). For indoor trees, avoid facing indoor foliage to gardens, to help stop birds flying into windows.
Keep away from grey/white caterpillars (oak processionary moths that cause allergies and breathing difficulties – contact a doctor/vet if in contact). Also cordon off affected trees from livestock and horses. Mostly found in London in warm weather, report to your council and Treealert.
Tristan Gooley is an award-winning author who has pioneered a renaissance in the rare art of natural navigation. He is the only living person to have sailed and flown single-handed across the Atlantic and has also studied the methods of tribal peoples in some of the world’s most remote areas.
an insight into our relationship with trees
The Heart of the Woods is a unique book on how trees have determined our lives in history, and how this is evolving over time. Just as a parent leaves a legacy to a child, a tree leaves a legacy to its surroundings. From the songs we sing to the boats we build, our lives are intertwined with those of trees and woodlands around us.
In this journey deep into the woods, the author travels the country (and across the pond to Ireland) to meet the people who plant trees, ecologists who study them and those who shape beautiful objects and tools from wood. He also explores what we get out of spending time around trees, for a read that will delight anyone who enjoys walking among the trees, or anyone (when feeling lost) has found themselves, in the woods. Stories in the book include:
- An ancient yew grove on the border of England & North Wales
- Science among the trees at Wytham Woods (Oxfordshire)
- Among the badgers in a field outside Cambridge
- A woodland boat-building community in Glasgow’s former docklands
- Rewilding the Scottish Highlands
- Wild swimming & forest bathing in Northumberland
- A pub on Ireland’s west coast
- A guitar-builder in North Wales
- Apple wassailing in Cornwall
- Willow-coffin making in Cornwall
Wyl Menmuir is a writer and literary consultant based in Cornwall, who is co-creator of a Cornish writing centre and works with Arvon Foundation, and also lectures in creative writing at Falmouth University.
discover the extraordinary world of oak trees
Oaklores: Adventures in a World of Extraordinary Trees is a wonderful debut book looking at the wildlife and nature adventures that go on within the branches of our majestic oak trees. The author’s infectious enthusiasm shines through in chapters that open with excerpts from oak-y poems, plus tips on connecting with nature, recognising birdsong and helping butterflies and moths to thrive.
What connects Robin Hood, the history of ink, fungi and Shakespeare? The answer is in this book, as the author explores the incredibly diverse history of the ‘king of the woods’. From a source of food and shelter to its use in literature, the oak tree’s role is an essential ingredient in ink (and in mythology across the British Isles).
Meet trees along the way like Sherwood Forest’s Medusa Oak or the gargantuan Marton Oak in Cheshire. Join the author on an unforgettable journey through the tangled roots of the oak’s story and that of our country itself. The author’s surname (Action) actually means ‘oak town!’ And she lives near Robin Hood’s former home of Sherwood Forest!
how well do you know your trees?
Here’s a quick list of the main species of England’s trees:
- Alder & alder buckthorn
- Apple
- Ash
- Aspen
- Bay
- Beech (common or copper)
- Birch (silver or downy)
- Blackthorn
- Box
- Blackthorn
- Cedar
- Cherry (bird, cherry or wild)
- Cedar
- Crab apple
- Cypress (lawson or Leyland)
- Dogwood
- Elder
- Elm (English, field, Huntington or wych)
- Eucalyptus
- European larch
- Douglas fir
- Guelder rose
- Hawthorn (or Midland hawthorn)
- Hazel
- Holly
- Hornbeam
- Horse chestnut
- Juniper
- Lime (common, small, large-leaved)
- Maple (field or maple)
- Monkey puzzle
- Oak (English, holm, red, sessile, turkey)
- Olive
- Pear (or Plymouth pear)
- Pine (black or Scots)
- Plane (very common in London)
- Plum (or cherry plum)
- Poplar (black or white)
- Rowan
- Spindle
- Spruce (sitka or Norway)
- Sweet chestnut
- Sycamore
- Walnut (or black walnut)
- Wayfaring
- Western red cedar
- Whitebeam (or arran or rock whitebeam)
- Wild service
- Willow
- Yew (or Irish yew)