Tree-time

    If you're not already familiar with Everyman's Library handsome hardbacks, they are quality books from the outside (acid-free paper, attractive jackets, ribbon markers) in.

    We have several of their Pocket Classics on our shelves but it's one of the new ones I've just been reading: Stories of Trees, Woods, and the Forest, edited by Fiona Stafford (author of The Long, Long Life of Trees). This contains an interesting mixture of tales old, new, funny, serious, folk-based, contemporary, spanning cultures and centuries from Ovid to Austen, Grimm to Carter. Topically, there's the beautiful and heartening The Man who Planted Trees by Jean Giono, but there's also a deliciously dark and unsettling tale about the felling of a tree, The Apple Tree by Daphne du Maurier. Another favourite of mine was a sweet and lovely story, The Outlaws by Ursula Moray Williams, and the one I loved most was The Gold of Fairnilee by that master of the genre Andrew Lang, but whatever your taste you're sure to find something that appeals.

    As Fiona Stafford says, "Within the leaves of this book, the old oaks, ancient woodlands, dark forests and warm groves of Europe flourish beside the great tropical trees of India and New Zealand, the wooded valleys and swamps of America and the African savannah. There are individual trees so real you can feel the bark through the pages and still smell the wood after the trunks turned into logs. There are trees that glow bright in memory, turn dark in nightmare, pale in the aftermath and green in the words of skilful storytellers ... All have the power to take root in readers' imaginations."

Comments

[Cosy Books]

This is happy news! These are lovely collections, perfect for dipping in and out of, and the tree theme definitely appeals.