Thomas Pakenham, Meetings with Remarkable Trees

Carl_Bergstrom

Thomas Pakenham loves trees. He loves them as individuals, as characters, if you will. He seeks out their personalities and their histories, and in this book he brings these things to life for us in spendid fashion.

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In love with trees

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Carl_Bergstrom

In this beautifully produced volume (worthy of the coffee table, though I hesitate to call it a coffee table book, because it's so well written and so interesting to read), Thomas Pakenham leads us on a tour of 60 of the most amazing trees in Great Britain, many of which have seen, or even played a role in, crucial turns of history. We see, for example, the Yew beneath which Lord Morton plotted the assassination of Earl of Darnley, hustban to Mary Queen of Scots - nearly five hundred years ago. Others were the subject of poets from Elizabethan times to Romantic. Pakenham has done a marvellous job of tracking down the history of these trees, and brings it life along side pictures of their current form.

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In love with trees

Carl_Bergstrom

Here, for example, is the Fredville Oak - as drawn in 1825, and as it looks today!

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In love with trees

Carl_Bergstrom

And so, while not a book on bonsai, Meetings with Remarkable Trees has done wonders for my eye as a bonsai artist, helping me appreciate the history and lives and the forms and the stories of ancient trees. More than anything, the book enriches the love I have for trees, and the wonder I feel when I encounter a truly remarkable specimen.

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All images used in this review are from the scans on Amazon.com where one can purchase this book.

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In love with trees

bonsaial1

Quite an unusual book. Trees with history, right up my alley.

You know, when I was a kid my maternal grandmother had a book of trees from the old west. They were hangmans trees. It was a collection of trees that bad guys had been hanged from throughout the western USA. Some were historical markers and some were just trees at some out of the way crossroads of America. I wish I could see that book again, I remember some of thoses trees were pretty scary looking to a 11 year old.

Bonsaial

K.A. Rutledge

Great book. I got one a few years ago, but gave my copy away to Dan Robinson who was visiting and had not seen it. It is very nice that many of the trees have not only a documented, written history, but several have photographic and artistic historical documnentation as well.

The book is a must-have for serious bonsai enthusiasts, IMO.

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
editor@bonsaienthusiast.com
zone 8, Texas

Jose_Alberto

Don't know about the book, but WOW, amazing trees!!!!

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Jose Alberto Franco
Guatemala
Central America
http://www.doschivos.com