Beechcombings: The Narratives of Trees

by Richard Mabey

In 1987, the greatest English storm for three centuries laid flat fifteen million trees across southern England and devastated a nation of tree-lovers. The storm marked a turning point in our perception of trees and a dawning realisation that they have lives of their own, beyond the roles and images we press on them.

In Beechcombings Richard Mabey traces the long history of the beech tree throughout Europe, writing about the bluebells, orchids, fungi, deer and badgers associated with them, the narratives we tell about trees and the images we make of them. It is an engrossing, exciting, poetical and profound book that will stimulate debate about man's relationship with nature and enchant the reader.

Genres: Nature, Natural History, Nonfiction, History, British Literature

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 4, 2007

About the author

Richard Mabey is one of England's greatest nature writers. He is author of some thirty books including Nature Cure which was shortlisted for the Whitbread, Ondaatje and Ackerley Awards.

A regular commentator on the radio and in the national press, he is also a Director of the arts and conservation charity Common Ground and Vice-President of the Open Spaces Society. He lives in Norfolk.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this. Just a fascinating exploration of these wonderful trees and how we, as humanity, regularly struggle with how to relate to 'Nature'. Extended reflection on what it means to 'leave to nature' and how our involvement over the centuries has been the very catalyst for change and development that we now look upon as what 'nature' intended. Clever argument that challlenges our tendencies to root about or charge in hamfistedly, or sit back and do nothing. By the end of the book I was unsure about where ecology should take us and how but then, perhaps that was Mabey's intention. The only sad thing is this has been my 'breakfast book' for the last month or so, the book I dip into whilst eating in the morning. I now have that task of attempting to decide on the new factual companion for my morning meal. This is always a real headache, so much to choose from.

[Richard Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with pretty well everything he writes, this is a book which can be read for the pleasure it gives as well as to learn about trees.

[Sophy H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another blinding book by Richard Mabey.

I think the passion this man has for his subject matter truly shines through to his writing.

Beech trees are majestic and imposing, like mighty whales traversing a green landscape. I have always been a fan of the beech so I loved this book immensely.

If you're a tree lover, I think you'll love this book too.

[heptagrammaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Polymathic and surprisingly politically insightful, Beechcombings mixes social history and critical essays and memoir.

Central to its text are our conceptualizations of trees, by turns romantic or pragmatic or paternalist, the socio-cultural and economic circumstances which have shaped our - but "tree time" and "human time", as Mabey is keen to remind us, operate on wholly different scales; they can proove resilient in rotten senility, their paths through the canopy are unknowable.

Time and time again, Mabey returns to the dilemma of human intervention in a natural world that has become fundamentally, irreversibly changed by us. Answers are ambiguous, counter-intuitive, if they are any at all.

Naturalness is whatever occurs between human interventions.

Most striking is Richard Maybe's acuity of insight into the materialist forces of cultural perception (that delightful "surprising politic" of my first paragraph).

The old idea of wood and timber as bounties given by nature, to be picked as and where they grew - the fruit of wild trees - was fading. In its place developed the idea of trees as artefacts, biddable machines for the production of timber, programmed at every stage of their lives from planting to cutting. The fundamental grammar of our relationship with trees changed. Trees grew, and we, in a kind of subordinate form, took things from them. In the forest-speak of the Enlightenment, 'growing' was a transitive verb. We were the subjects and trees the object. We were the cause of their existence in particular places on the earth.

The little quasi-poetic abstracts provide focus for the reader, a very neat touch. I regret not seeing this done more often in non-fiction, it's great.

[5greenway · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5. Lovely writing, setting out complex relationships, navigating a tricky path between understandings of 'natural' and the ideas we project or impose on it. Felt it was less strong on where the current crises might take us and the world and all those complex relationships, but that's probably me clinging to a concept of doing, of managing, improving, solving like all the well-intentioned, misguided or plain mad characters Mabey introduces.

[David Alesworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant book, the Beech tree today and throughout recorded British history. There is much social history here, changing lifestyles and land use, changing technologies and requirements of the forest. As someone who's lived away from the UK for more than twenty years it felt deeply nostalgic and an overlapping of childhood experiences with woodland and even particular trees.

[Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't recommend this book highly enough. A social history of trees in Britain, through focussing on one species, the Beech,and a commentary on Mabey's own experiences with Beeches, makes a very readable and enjoyable volume.

[Paulfozz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating meander through the beechwoods of England and the history of our attitudes towards woodland trees. Wide-ranging in scope and quite thought-provoking.

[Juliet Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beechcombings, from well known nature writer Richard Mabey, looks at the history of trees in the British landscape, with specific reference to beeches. He tries to put human history into the perspective of the much longer timescale of woodlands. He also balances the history of natural woodlands with different forms of woodland management and with his own experience as a manager and owner of a small woodland.

Ageing trees provide valuable habitat for a large number of lesser plants, invertebrates and birds that feed on the invertebrates and in fact disease organisms:

'ageing, coexistence with parasites, entrenchment, are not 'diseases'. They are ancient arrangements trees have made with their environments. More worrying would be trees which appeared entirely 'healthy', unnibbled by insects, abandoned by fungi. What would that say about the toxicity of their surroundings?'

The book explores in some detail the differences between natural woodland and managed forestry and the value of both of these. There are challenges for natural woodland to develop along natural lines, given the 'new enemies - human, animal, fungal, atmospheric - that were not there in prehistoric times'.

There are interesting discussions about the motivations behind woodland management - desire for control, aesthetics, cultural significance, ecological ideals. But maybe we can learn from natural woodland regeneration, more than we realise:

'Trees have evolved through aeons of climate change. Collectively they know how to cope with it. We don't, and need to learn from solutions that they may only be able to express in unmanaged and unmanipulated situations. Their ancient, inbuilt diversity is not available from nursery-grown stock.'

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full of art, biology, ecology, philosophy, history, and the politics of trees and common land in the UK, I found this book fascinating and also a slow read. Part of that is because I was looking up all the art. Part of it is because the author is a poet in prose clothing, and it took me time to digest.

[Geoff Butler · Rating 2 out of 5]

This has been a long time in the reading, being picked read a bit and put aside while I read something else. To be honest it was a slog. I didn’t get the point Richard was trying to make and I found the language far to verbose

[Ruth Kenyon]

Why is everyone writing books about TREES??? Roger Deakin did one, there is The Private Life of Trees which I have left on Garienos' floor to read sometime and there is this ... I LIKE Richard Mabey but I couldn't bear to read another book on TREES.

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

A series of poetic, musing essays about beechwoods, mixed through with autobiographical bits and pieces. I read 2 (long) chapters then moved onto something more fun.

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Suddenly an expert on beeches. Great for me! I think I'm all set on naturalist writing for a while. I can only take a bit every few months.

[Liberty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderful. But, I don't know enough about trees. I'm moving on to The Unofficial Countryside.

[Mila]

I just couldn't get into this book by my new favourite nature writer. Perhaps because I don't know any beech trees.