The Wood for the Trees : One Man's Long View of Nature

From recipes for ground elder soup to musings on bumblebee varieties or gruesome tales of murder, Fortey’s enthusiasm for his new wonderland is infectious and illuminating. His style echoes the great Gilbert White and his approach is proudly old school. He makes clear his distaste for “fuzzy” romanticism and the intruding emotions of the observer, but he too is romantic at times, not least in his resolve to collect things found in, or created from, his patch of wood. Mouse-gnawed cherry stones, glass made from flint, fallen birds’ eggs are among the things he preserves in a cabinet made from his own timber.Of course, collections are the trade of scientists and curators too, and it’s clear old habits die hard. With some help from friends at the Natural History Museum, Fortey begins a deep analysis of the wood and its inhabitants – trees, insects, animals, plants and minerals. He starts with the substrate, slicing buried flint and putting it under a microscope to identify its origins, and ends up on a cherry picker in the canopy, all in the name of cataloguing the wood’s many mice, moths, bats, beetles, butterflies, crane flies, spiders, parasitic wasps, orchids, centipedes, millipedes and weird and wonderful fungi. These long taxonomies could easily be dry and exhausting, but they come alive thanks to Fortey’s vivid descriptions. Flat-backed millipedes “look as if they were assembled from some kind of kit that clicks together to make miniature armoured trains”; the Lithobius variegatus centipede’s striped legs stick out “like oars from a Viking ship, bent on pillage”.Interwoven with these records are peripatetic investigations into human stories, from this patch’s iron age incarnation through Henley’s boom as a thriving river town supplying timber to the capital, up to the recent snapping up and fencing off of surrounding land by oligarchs and bankers. Along the way, Fortey unearths his wood’s changing fortunes.... Scientist Richard Fortey Chronicles What He Found On His Four Acres Of Woodland In The Chiltern Hills Of Oxfordshire, England Over The Course Of One Year. A Few Years Ago, Award-winning Scientist Richard Fortey Purchased Four Acres Of Woodland In The Chiltern Hills Of Oxfordshire, England. The Wood For The Trees Is The Joyful, Lyrical Portrait Of What He Found There.with One Chapter For Each Month, We Move Through The Seasons: Tree Felling In January, Moth Hunting In June, Finding Golden Mushrooms In September. Fortey, Along With The Occasional Expert Friend, Investigates The Forest Top To Bottom, Discovering A New Species And Explaining The Myriad Connections That Tie Us To Nature And Nature To Itself. His Textured, Evocative Prose And Gentle Humor Illuminate The Epic Story Of A Small Forest. But He Doesn't Stop At Mere Observation. The Wood For The Trees Uses The Forest As A Springboard Back Through Time, Full Of Rich And Unexpected Tales Of The People, Plants, And Animals That Once Called The Land Home. With Fortey's Help, We Come To See A Universe In Miniature. April -- May -- June -- July -- August -- September -- October -- November -- December -- January -- February -- March. Richard Fortey. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 287-294) And Index. From the author of Earth: An Intimate History, an exuberant "biography" of four acres of woodland, evoking a cosmos of living and inanimate things and imagining its millennia of existence A few years ago, award-winning scientist Richard Fortey purchased four acres of woodland in the Chiltern Hills of Oxfordshire, England. The Wood for the Trees is the joyful, lyrical portrait of what he found there. With one chapter for each month, we move through the seasons: tree felling in January, moth hunting in June, finding golden mushrooms in September. Fortey, along with the occasional expert friend, investigates the forest top to bottom, discovering a new species and explaining the myriad connections that tie us to nature and nature to itself. His textured, evocative prose and gentle humor illuminate the epic story of a small forest. But he doesn't stop at mere observation. The Wood for the Trees uses the forest as a springboard back through time, full of rich and unexpected tales of the people, plants, and animals that once called the land home. With Fortey's help, we come to see a universe in miniature. From the Hardcover edition