Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees

By Roger Deakin

Book Overview

A much-loved classic of nature writing from environmentalist and the author of Waterlog, Roger Deakin, Wildwood is an exploration of the element wood in nature, our culture and our lives.

'Breathtaking, vividly written . . . reading Wildwood is an elegiac experience' Sunday Times

'He writes nature as a blackbird sings, or a bird of prey rides thermals - effortlessly.' Reader Review
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From the walnut tree at his Suffolk home, he embarks upon a quest that takes him through Britain, across Europe, to Central Asia and Australia, in search of what lies behind man's profound and enduring connection with wood and trees.

Meeting woodlanders of all kinds, he lives in shacks and cabins, travels in search of the wild apple groves of Kazakhstan, goes coppicing in Suffolk, swims beneath the walnut trees of the Haut-Languedoc, and hunts bush plums with Aboriginal women in the outback.

Perfect for fans of Robert Macfarlane and Colin Tudge, Roger Deakin's unmatched exploration of our relationship with trees is autobiography, history, traveller's tale and incisive work in natural history. It will take you into the heart of the woods, where we go 'to grow, learn and change.
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'Enthralling' Will Self, New Statesman

'Extraordinary . . . some of the finest naturalist writing for many years' Independent

'An excellent read - lyrical and literate and full of social and historical insights of all kinds' Colin Tudge, Financial Times

'Enchanting, very funny, every page carries a fascinating nugget. Should serve to make us appreciate more keenly all that we have here on earth . . . one of the greatest of all nature writers' Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0141010010
• ISBN13: 9780141010014
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: Penguin UK
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 1.0" x 5.1"

Customer Reviews

Blown away

My husband said, "Read this book,you will love it." He could not have been more right. I do not know when I have read a book I loved more than this journey around the world of trees. Having grown up in the Midwest, in a little Iowa town full of maple trees and river bottoms, I was so at home in this book I cried when I read the last page. I travel in Britain, particularly Wales, when I can, and have been in some of the ancient groves. I once walked a footpath through the woods near Stackpole, and got so thoroughly lost that when I emerged on a road hours later, it was a terrible shock. I had been in the world of trees. Deakin took me back to that place so thoroughly, that one night at about 3:00 I stopped reading and was surprised to find myself on my couch in front of the fire, I had been so immersed in the walnut trees of Kyrgystan. Roger Deakin is no longer on this earth, but these works of his will endure in the genre of nature writing forever.

tree huggers rejoice

Won't someone please, perhaps his friend Robert MacFarlane, go through Deakins papers so this book won't have to be his last? Another excellent book going undeservedly undernoticed and unsung. Believe it or not one of the best chapters is "Among Jaguars"-a chapter on automobiles in a book about trees; I squeal with delight! Find out a great deal about cricket bats and eel traps, and the Green Man, among other fascinating things. Squeezing himself inside a hollow thousand year old holly, full of holes and decay: "Yet the tree was in full foliage and blackbirds were sampling the first of its ripe pink berries." A book to be savored...

Not to Be Missed

Deakin's essays on his experiences, since he was a young student, in various woods in his native Great Britain and in numerous other parts of the world among the most eloquent, inspiring, and entertaining natural history essays that I have read. He combines his interest in natural history, myth and legend, the environment, and above all his interactions, and those of others, with wooded areas. This book is not to be missed.

A Very Lyrical Tree Book

When I first read an advance review of this book, I knew I had to have it. I'm not a a tree specialist, just a tree-lover. This informative book is written for folks like me. It presents a world-wide perspective of cultural relationships, history and some specific species data. What I loved most is that the author's prose style. This book is so well-written that it carries you along until the last page. I will definitely re-read it several times in the future!