Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees. Roger Deakin [Paperback]

Roger Deakin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2008

"Wildwood" is a remarkable celebration of the transforming magic of trees, exploring the 'fifth element' of wood as it exists in nature, in our souls, in our culture and our lives. From the walnut tree at his Suffolk home, Roger Deakin 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 with 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 bushplums with Aboriginal women in the outback.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In this last book before his death in 2006, Deakin (Waterlog) delights with his curiosity and affection for rambling forests in Europe and Australia. The book is as much about the woodland animals and humans engaged with forest life as it is about the trees, the rooks flinging themselves into a strong wind and somersaulting wildly upward, then diving straight down again into the woods like bungee jumpers; the Essex Moth Group clustering around a mercury lamp to view moths with poetic names like the willow beauty, the dingy footman, the clouded silver; and artists engaging with nature, like John Wolseley, inspired by the fire-struck Australian Whipstick Forest to create works expressing all the urgency and energy of the racing bushfire itself. Deakin's lyrical, sometimes anthropomorphic portraits of trees and wood are saturated with his scientific knowledge and passion: a hazel branch, more of a magician's staff than a walking stick... naturally fluted and spiraled by the strangling effect of the honeysuckle stem that still encircled it like an asp... was a masterpiece of nature, the voluptuous embrace of the honeysuckle exciting the hazel into a frenzy of cell division. (Jan.)
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Review

Full of delight and joy and wisdom Sunday Telegraph With this book Roger Deakin can be counted one of the greatest of all nature writers. His beautiful book should serve to make us appreciate more keenly all that we have here on earth Mail on Sunday A breathtaking book Sunday Times A masterpiece which deserves to be read and reread Guardian One of my favourite kind of books. Few books make you change your habits; this one changed mine -- Will Self New Statesman

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Product Details

• Paperback: 390 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (December 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141010010
• ISBN-13: 978-0141010014
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,308,276 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not to Be Missed, June 30, 2009

By 

Norman D. Stevens (Storrs, CT) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees (Hardcover)

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.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Very Lyrical Tree Book, February 7, 2009

By 

Kathleen G. O. Mccloskey "postal unit" (Staunton VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees (Hardcover)

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!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blown away, January 10, 2010

By 

Bonnie Murphy (Montana) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees (Hardcover)

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.