The Language of Trees is a beautifully produced book and is full of riches. The collection has been curated and designed by writer, artist and activist Katie Holten and melds science, with folklore, memoir, cultural history, poetry and much more.
I doubt anyone will pick it up and read it straight through but are more likely to keep it close at hand because not only is it a beautiful object in itself, but because most of the essays in it demand a slow read and a return to be fully appreciated.
It certainly does deliver on the mind-altering front too. Raising questions about such matters as the absence of trees in cave paintings and the hazards of objectifying nature, and teaching lessons from the observations of Leonardo da Vinci, contemporary botanists, and indigenous peoples around the world.
Like a tree itself, it connects many branches and systems of life, above and below the surface and continually surprises.
I have not finished reading it yet but look forward to revisiting it in the days to come.
My only reservation is that the book’s status as an object of art, which includes the use of small green print, makes it difficult to read for someone, like me, with ageing eyes.
- The Language of Trees edited by Kate Holten is published by Elliott & Thompson (£16.99). To order a copy go to eandtbooks.com
Ian Tattum
Ian Tattum is a priest in the Church of England who writes occasional pieces about the people who shaped the history of science and human and animal travel-real and fictional.
