Wildwood

I was first drawn to read Wildwood by the late Roger Deakin because or having thoroughly enjoyed several of Robert Macfarlane's nature books. I understand that Macfarlane is now the literary editor of Deakin's extensive writings and I figured if Macfarlane appreciated Deakin's writing as much as I do Macfarlane's, then I would love this book too. Wildwood is a collection of essays encompassing many different topics, but all linked through their central theme being wood in one sense or another. Deakin recounts his travels across the world in search of one tree species or another, discusses the trees on his own land in Suffolk, and introduces artists such as David Nash who have made careers out of wood sculpture and art. To be honest, despite being quite a fan of sculpture itself, the arty essays were my least favourites because they did get too pretentious for my tastes. That said though, Wildwood, like an actual wood itself, frequently changes its makeup and appearance as we move through it, so it wasn't long before I was immersed in Deakin's travel memoirs instead. His search for the origins of our domestic apples in Kazakhstan reminded me strongly of a similar search through the history of pears in the brilliant Lost Feast by Lenore Newman, and I also loved Deakin's diversions into tree culture and folklore which I found fascinating. Wildwood probably is not best read from cover to cover - as I did, of course - but dipped into between other reads, a chapter at a time, over a period of days or weeks. Deakin is obviously very knowledgeable about his subject and, other than his frequent references to classic works I haven't read (he does like a good Shakespearean allusion), I found his writing style both informative and pleasantly engaging.