Remarkable Trees

Christina Harrison and Tony Kirkham

There are some books that you return to again and again, for the depth of knowledge they reveal and their beauty. These volumes become life-long friends and are easily found in your bookshelves. Remarkable Trees is just such a book.

Two experts from the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew – Christina Harrison and Tony Kirkham – have selected 60 remarkable trees from across the world, ranging from our own yew and hazel trees to the more outlandish coco de mer or candlestick banksia. Rather than arranged alphabetically, the trees are divided under six distinct chapter headings: Building and creating, Feasting and celebrating, Healers and killers, Body and soul, Wonders of the world, Threatened and endangered.

The text is fascinating; beyond pure botanical description, enlightened cultural and historical insights are given into each tree and supported by superb illustrations from the vast archive at Kew. The result is a cornucopia of images, ranging from mediaeval miniatures of a frankincense tree (with resident phoenix), via exquisite 18^th-century engravings of strychnine foliage, to Victorian photographs of Quinine trees.

This beautifully illustrated book reveals just how much these useful, fascinating, dangerous yet beautiful living beings really contribute to our lives. Dame Judi Dench