Fiona Stafford

There are endless odes to trees. We continue to stumble onto their attributes and how they can provide for us in new ways. From David Harris’ horrifying The Last Stand, to Stefano Mancuso’s stunning Brilliant Green, I devour the information we pick up. I appreciate total respect for trees. Fiona Stafford continues the tradition, adding historical, literary and mythical aspects to a selection of 17 trees found in England, including her own experience with them. It is a delight.

There is show more often great respect for trees in the UK. In England, great old trees have their own names. They are locations, milestones, boundary references and above all, meeting places. Churches and halls were built at those tree meeting places, the natural place for them. English yews can easily be 2500 years old, oaks 1000. They are long-lived, dependable landmarks in addition to all their other gifts.

In The Long Long Life of Trees, we learn not only their lifespans (30 years for apple, 3000 for yews), but what uses their wood is, what chemical compounds we make from their fruit, their sap or their bark, and how history and literature have treated them (badly for the willow, royally for the oak). It took 2000 oaks to make a warship. Holly trees date from the Cretaceous. Apples came from Kazakhstan, willows from China. Elms and horse chestnuts - museum pieces unfortunately.

The book suffers from one thing – images. There are lots of black and white etchings and woodcuts, far more artistic than informative, and I found it impossible to read the book without an internet search engine handy. Stafford goes to great lengths describing famous trees in various locales, but usually doesn’t show them, and when she does, it’s monochrome or grayscale. This is sinful. Trees with a circumference of 50 feet need to be seen if only to be believed. There’s no point describing glorious blossoms if all you’re going to show is a line drawing.

It is well researched, and the passion shows on every page. The Long Long Life of Trees is a valued addition to the shelf.

David Wineberg show less

I picked up this book because I have a friend who is very interested in trees, thinking it might be a good thing to give him as a gift. It is a collection of short pieces, essays really, each covering the natural and social history of a specific tree. I didn't read every chapter, but only the ones that particularly interested me. The author is British, so many of the stories focus on trees found in Britain, but she does a good job describing trees from all over the world. It is well written show more and nicely illustrated, and even the paper is a very high quality. It was a pleasure to read and will be a pleasure to gift. show less

If you love trees, this is an interesting book that brings together science, literature, folklore and other information about a variety of trees. They are all species that are well known in the UK, but the author also talks about species in the same genus that grow in other countries. I especially enjoyed the author's knowledge of trees in literature (she is a Professor of Literature) and the way she weaves quotes from novels, plays and poems into the narrative. I learnt a few things about show more the scientific and medical uses of trees, and the etymology of placenames, too. My favourite chapter was the final one, about apple trees. I love the older, sharper varieties of British apples and the author had interesting things to say about changes in taste and the need to preserve heritage varieties. The book is beautifully illustrated with reproductions of woodcuts, engravings, photographs, paintings and pencil sketches. show less

A lovely book linking history, folklore, science and nature writing, both in prose and poetry. Beautifully illustrated with woodcuts and other black and white illustrations. I was fascinated in particular by the old rituals she described as linked to trees, from beliefs about healing to annual parades. Particularly British trees - would love to read an international sequel.