Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11140 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-31
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

Synopsis
From the walnut tree at his Suffolk home, Roger Deakin embarks upon a quest that takes him through Britain, across Europe, to Central Asia and Australia, in search of what lies behind man's profound and enduring connection with wood and with trees. Meeting woodlanders of all kinds, he lives in shacks and cabins, builds hazel benders, and hunts bush-plums with aboriginal women. At once autobiography, history, a traveller's tale and a work of natural history, "Wildwood" is a lyrical and fiercely intimate evocation of the spirit of trees: in nature, in our souls, in our culture, and in our lives.

Customer Reviews

interesting but smug
A great read if you can cope with the "heres another one of my friends who owns a wood etc"

A book to savour next to a roaring log (oops!) fire
Sorry about the pun above, but it's true. This is a large book that deserves a huge armchair, a wee dram and the aforementioned fire.

At last I have got round to reading this, and devoured it over a wet Easter weekend. If ever a book encouraged you to get out there and actually SEE the natural world around you, and APRECIATE it, then this is the one. Sure there are minor criticisms, mainly stylistic, but if you read this in conjunction with his good friend Robert McFarlane's book you will see that this book was (possibly) written under circumstances where the author was unwell, which perhaps leads to the sometimes "bitty" nature of the narrative. But even without eulogising too much over this one, the author's love of the countryside shines through and if the purpose of this book is to put that across and get the reader to think outside their four walls then this surely succeeds.

Inspiring, and inspired
A lovely book. I came upon Wildwood as a novice, never having read anything by Deakin before - but he is good; he is very good. The book comes in four main blocks: Roots, about his home and youth; Sapwood, on British wood, woods and artists; Driftwood, on his travels in Europe, Australia and central Asia; and Heartwood, back to his home area of Suffolk. Each block comes in short chapters, full of information, insight, and excellent writing. He likes sleeping outside or in an old railway wagon, and links this to writings by Jefferies or Thoreau, recites the beams in his house, or starts talking about an ancient propeller hub in his study and diversifies that into walnut and all its applications, down to Jaguar gear knobs. I could have done without the Australian bits - they just don't resonate for me (hence four stars). But the Kazak and Kyrgyz chapters are wonderful, and more than make up for it. He is never dull - the writing is full of links to the familiar, observations on new insights, fascinating snippets. This is an inspiring book, by an inspired writer.