The Oak Papers
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- £6.99
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
'Some five years ago, I sought solace from the ways of the world by stepping into the embrace of an ancient oak tree . . . From the first meeting, there grew a strange sense of attachment I did not consciously recognise until I later began to realise the significance that trees, and oak trees especially, can have in our lives.’
James Canton spent two years sitting with and studying the Honywood Oak. A colossus of a tree, it would have been a sapling when Magna Carta was signed. Initially visiting the tree for escape and solitude, in time he learns to study it more closely. He examines how our long-standing dependency on oak trees has developed and morphed into myth and legend.
The Oak Papers is a stunning, meditative and healing book about the lessons we can learn from the natural world, if only we slow down enough to listen.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Canton (Ancient Wonderings), who runs the Wild Writing MA program at the University of Essex, pays homage to "a venerable oak tree, eight hundred years old, living on the edge of a wood on a small country estate a few miles from house" in this elegiac account. Sitting beside the Honywood Oak in north Essex, England, "in all weathers and all seasons, at all times of day and night," Canton becomes well-acquainted with the tree's curves and contours, and the wildlife that lives in and around it. Many of Canton's observations are captured in journal entries: "8 February. The snow has gone. The sunlight drowns the green of the conifers. There is birdsong and signs of life." Along the way, Canton offers a broad look at oak trees in general and their place in human history: their wood was used for fire, for example, their trunks were used to build homes, and their acorns gathered, stored, and eaten. Canton movingly maintains a humble sense of perspective: no matter his own worries, existential crises, or accomplishments, he understands they pale in comparison to all that the oak tree has endured and provided through centuries. Nature-lovers will find Canton's poetic tribute to be a treat.
