Further reading: Books

So many books of different types on trees; the author who really stands out for me is Oliver Rackham, 1939-2015, whose books seem to mirror a life devoted to investigating the history of woodland landscape, not just in and around his own county but in various parts of the world. His last book, The Ash Tree, addressed his chief worry, the impact of globalisation in bringing new pests and pathogens to challenge our trees and woodlands.

Just as Oliver Rackham left the stage, the forester Peter Wohlleben entered with his remarkably readable and informative short work, Das geheime Leben der Bäume, translated as The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World, and published in English in September 2016. For me, it is the Book of the Year.

The booklist below comprises a personal selection of what has been interesting and inspiring. It is definitely not a survey of all the best in books on trees, though I suspect these books would be included in such a list.

Such is the nature of publishing that supply fails to meet demand over a period of time and many books can be obtained only as used copies. To meet this need, technology has supplied an answer: online secondhand book searches are far more productive than ever before and www.abebooks.co.uk and www.amazon.co.uk often come up with the book one wants.

Booklist

The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben