This week’s programme is an interview with Fiona Stafford, in which we discuss humanity’s long, rich and complex relationship with trees. Fiona, who is a professor of English at Oxford, has written a beautifully illustrated book which explores this relationship through seventeen essays on different species of tree. But far from being merely an exercise in folkloric nostalgia, the book looks to our future with trees as well as our past. As Fiona writes in her introduction:
“If The Long, Long Life of Trees springs from a sense of wonder at the physical beauty of these natural phenomena, their survival over the centuries and the cultural associations that have grown up among them, it also looks forwards to a time in which the saplings being planted today will turn into the great trees of future generations.”
The Long Long Life of Trees is published by Yale University Press and is out now in paperback – there’s more information on the book available here.