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Amazon.co.uk Review
Thomas Pakenham, a distinguished historian of Africa, takes a new tack by writing an old-fashioned kind of book in Meetings with Remarkable Trees: a catalogue of trees of the British Isles. The last such book was published in 1826. In Meetings with Remarkable Trees Pakenham assembles a beautifully photographed gallery of 60-odd trees of Scotland, England and Ireland, and magnificent trees they are. One is a 600-year-old king oak that looms large over Charleville, Ireland; another is the yew tree that Wordsworth called the "pride of Lorton's vale"; still another is a sequoia brought from the United States and planted in a Herefordshire grove in 1851, where it has since flourished. Pakenham helpfully includes a map showing the locations of his scattered dramatis personae; you could make a fine tour retracing his steps and having a look for yourself. --Christine Buttery, Amazon.com
--This text refers to the
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Thomas Pakenham will attend the Edinburgh Festival on 25/8/03
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First Sentence
THE TWO LARGEST COMMON OAKS (Quercus robur) in Britain and Ireland - and probably Europe, too - are the Fredville Oak in Kent and the Bowthorpe Oak in Lincolnshire. Read the first page
Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
THE TWO LARGEST COMMON OAKS (Quercus robur) in Britain and Ireland - and probably Europe, too - are the Fredville Oak in Kent and the Bowthorpe Oak in Lincolnshire. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
50 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is not a book for someone who merely enjoys a walk in the woods, this is a book for people who feel passionately about trees, who understand them and appreciate the beauty of these amazing natural structures that give shape and interest to our land. This book takes you back in time and allows you to understand the lives of these many unusually shaped, living historical monuments. This is a book that will change how you look at trees. The photography is amazing and the guide to where to find the trees is very helpful. Everybody who has ever looked at a tree and wondered about it's life should buy this book, trees will never look quite the same again.
39 of 39 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I am just doing a quick review, though it must be a year since I bought my copy, as I'm about to buy another one for my Mum for Christmas (she doesn't use computers so she won't know I've said this). I take Meetings with Remarkable Trees down from its shelf more often than any of the books of travel photographs, art books, souvenir-type books most people own but don't look at. Why? It inspires me, tugs at the emotions in a way you'd never expect. Look at it in a shop and you'll never appreciate its long-term magic. It's difficult to explain why you should buy it - there's no guarantee you'll see anything other than an expensive picture book - but you might and if you do, it'll be worth every penny. Buy the hard-back. You'll want to keep this book for a long time. I'm not normally a 5-star reviewer but it's one of the few books I have which are worth it, so that's what I am giving it.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A sumptuous photographic celebration of the finest, tallest, oldest and in some cases oddest trees in Great Britain and Ireland. A quirky and original arrangement that starts with native giant oaks and beeches, moving on to cover American imported specimens, including the British Isles' tallest tree - a 212-foot Douglas Fir at the Hermitage, Dunkeld. On then to imports from the East, including cedars of Lebanon and gingkos - a tree species whose evolutionary lineage is so ancient that it first appeared before leaf-eating insects, and so remains untroubled by them to this day.
Author Thomas Pakenham then tires of organising things geographically, celebrating instead trees as shrines (sacred trees, poets' trees and `trees of liberty' like the sycamore beneath which the Tolpuddle martyrs met to plan the first Trade Union), trees as fantasies, and finally, appropriately, trees as ruins and relics. These include a decaying oak at Bowthorpe, its hollowed-out trunk so large that twenty people can dine inside it.
The photos are, almost without exception, stunning, mixing fine detail of bark and leaves with more panoramic shots. Pakenham's accompanying brief texts are always informative, often with literary allusions or a poetic turn - he says of the Nymans cedar in Sussex: `in the hot wind we could smell the resinous tang of Solomon's temple' (64). You sense a genuine love of the trees he describes and the part they have played in our natural and social history, no more so than when he laments the decayed or dying state of those affected by the hurricanes of 1987 and 1990. A wonderful hymn to trees in all their magnificence.
Author Thomas Pakenham then tires of organising things geographically, celebrating instead trees as shrines (sacred trees, poets' trees and `trees of liberty' like the sycamore beneath which the Tolpuddle martyrs met to plan the first Trade Union), trees as fantasies, and finally, appropriately, trees as ruins and relics. These include a decaying oak at Bowthorpe, its hollowed-out trunk so large that twenty people can dine inside it.
The photos are, almost without exception, stunning, mixing fine detail of bark and leaves with more panoramic shots. Pakenham's accompanying brief texts are always informative, often with literary allusions or a poetic turn - he says of the Nymans cedar in Sussex: `in the hot wind we could smell the resinous tang of Solomon's temple' (64). You sense a genuine love of the trees he describes and the part they have played in our natural and social history, no more so than when he laments the decayed or dying state of those affected by the hurricanes of 1987 and 1990. A wonderful hymn to trees in all their magnificence.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Invest in the hardback
This is a wonderful, lush, magical book, make no mistake. But I was a cheapskate, and bought one of the later re-issues, in paperback. It was a mistake. Read more
Published 26 days ago by Peasant
Excellent
Seems to be out of print in English, found it in Spanish so wanted English version, but best photoset I've ever seen.
Published 1 month ago by Mr. D. M. Fayers
Beautiful book, usual high level of service
Lovely book, great photos, it's remarkable to look on things that have survived everything. This book would make a tree hugger out of anyone . Gift for the gardener in winter. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Matthew Griffin
Tree books by Thomas Pakenham
Always was a terrific book about trees. So is the other by same author. He started a trend but has rarely been matched.
Published 7 months ago by C. B. Heywood-Jones
Meeting with Remarkable Trees
Enjoyed this book very much indeed. A lot of them are in my locality which makes it even more interesting and some actually on the estate where I live.
Published 8 months ago by Tuliplady
Trees with Souls
I keep this on my best side locker to dip into and remind myself that nature is beautiful. It grounds me to think that trees live much longer than humans do. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Ms. Jane E. Morgan
meeting with remarkable trees
a most interesting book for any tree lover
style easy and although a good browsing book it could give the most interested a cover to cover experience
style easy and although a good browsing book it could give the most interested a cover to cover experience
Published 15 months ago by Hugh Dempster
Trees Please
If you like trees buy a copy of this book. The irony is its made from trees, but actually felling and replanting of forest areas is the best way to maximise carbon uptake. Read more
Published 15 months ago by S Genders
Beautiful Book
If you like trees, you will love this book. A book to dip into, and a book to give glory to the Creator.
Published on 27 Mar 2010 by A. Cottrell
remarkable book
A mini masterpiece. Thomas Pakenham has created something beautiful which every tree lover should own
Published on 1 Sep 2009 by Owen Williams
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