The Tree Climber’s Guide

by Jack Cooke

‘After I finished this book I alarmed my family by going into the garden and climbing the apple tree.’ – Damian Whitworth, The Times ‘One of the publishing sensations of the year … For anyone who has ever felt a little overwhelmed in a big city, or wanted to step out of the rat race for an hour or two, Jack Cooke will be something of an inspiration.’ – Robert Hardman, Daily Mail A wonderful cocktail of engaging writing, beautiful illustration and heartfelt appreciation for the natural world. An essential oddity for any book collection. In this charming, witty and exquisitely illustrated companion, Jack Cooke explores the city through its canopy; teetering on the edge of an oak’s branches, scurrying up a Scots pine, spying views from the treetops that few have ever had the chance to see. He takes us through the parks, over the canals and rivers and into secret gardens on his journey sometimes only ten foot above the street. Part guidebook, part meditation on the consolations of nature, The Tree Climber’s Guide is as uniquely odd, alluring and motley as the trees themselves. It is a journey into the tangle of bark and branches that surround us all and a welcome reminder that the best things in life are free – they just sometimes require a step in the right direction.

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

Published April 7, 2016

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author’s basic thinking here is that people should climb back up the trees we came down from at the end of our childhood and learn liberation, fun and something about nature. His argument is that it is natural, you don’t need fancy equipment and you can temporarily get back childhood wonder. Eons ago our ancestors lived in trees why not return temporarily. Of course we’ve lost something of those ancient fingers and toes and no longer have prehensile tails, but never mind. His first step is to remove his shoes though.

Cooke says adults learn fear and shame as far as tree climbing goes, but will admit that fear serves us well as far as saving us from doing dangerous things (like climbing trees). But if you want to join Jack, shed your shoes and lose your shame. These are public places and specimens trees he is climbing. He’s found and listed public places in London that have many trees to pick from but still sometimes brings someone to give him a leg up into the lower branches. His wife has done the very nice illustrations for his books, so maybe she is the official leg up person too. He is respectful of both trees and people. It’s bad form to interrupt people by gravesites and wrong to pick fragile trees. Cooke usually comes down scraped and sticky. I looked out my back yard to the woods. Not a single climbable tree. Natural woods have no lower limbs, so follow Jack to more urban spots.

Cooke has a likable natural style and he is completely unpretentious. If he hadn’t been so good natured I might have given the book three stars. If you are in London and see a man climbing outside of your 4th story apartment window, wave and smile, unless he has a burglary kit with him.

[Jakub Lupták · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wholesome ode to tree climbing

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't be fooled by the title. The author is NOT an arborist or professional tree climber. (Although he did admit a brief & failed attempt at being a professional arborist. Jack Cooke is an amateur tree climber, plain and simple. And, he foregoes using any technical equipment - no ropes, no saddles. In fact, he prefers to climb barefoot.
The author is just passionate about climbing trees, particularly ones that provide unique views from their crown and/or are growing in unique locations. His book is basically a tree-top tour of London from a wide variety of locations & trees. Some easy to climb, others a bit challenging. Some in very public locations others in rather obscure locations.
A quick, entertaining read for anyone that appreciates trees or adventures. And for those that climb trees for a living, a very interesting perspective on the exploration of tree crowns.

[Graham Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like many, I know I'm going to climb a tree again as a result of reading this, even if my older limbs have stiffened almost as much as the tree's.
I've read quite a few negative reviews of this book and to have avoided them it ought really to be called 'The Tree Climber's Guide to London'. Readers in Manhattan have been irritated that it's of little practical use in their city. But the overarcing theme is that trees are there to be noticed, respected and indeed climbed.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a glorious quirky book! I dipped in and out of it, enjoying the short witty descriptions of the author's climbing experiences of so many different trees in London, especially the final entry describing the night he spends aloft in a beech in Green Park. His final words? "Climb often and climb widely, and you will gain a country all of your own, a secret garden in the sky."

[Marylynn Lynch-Gomez · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an audiobook, this was a delightful light "read" of the authors trollops in tree.

[Kalilah · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only good thing about this book are the illustrations, which are stunning. The rest reads like one man's ego-trip as he recounts in the most unimaginative, lazy, dull way possible the many tees he has climbed and the boring, uninspired thoughts he had while he was in them.
This book oozes white privilege. Had it been a Sayeed Wahabi or an Ayodele Nwaokeke or perhaps a Priti Koar, you can bet your bottom dollar it would not have seen the light of day.

You'd think finding out the name of the trees you'd lovingly climbed time and time again would be the instinctive next step, but apparently Jack Cooke didn't think to do that until he wanted to publish this book. To his credit, he does thank Fergus Kinmonth for doing the hard work for him. So not only does the author have little to no knowledge about trees, he also has zero writing ability. He'll mention road names and building names and boat names to give the reader the illusion of a knowledgeable and observant writer, while having had not the foggiest clue what the name of the tree he sat on was. The average "entry" (is all I can think it call it) reads a bit like this:

"Today I saw tree in park. I climb tree. I saw pigeon from tree in park. I thought, wow. I see Francesca, she beautiful, she boat. I climb down from tree in park. I go for the drinklings."

This book should have been a talk delivered to school children, or at most a brief newspaper article. Instead it's an entire 280-page-long book, extortionately priced at £14.99 and over-praised by other privileged white people pretending to love trees and nature. I can only wonder what this guy's cover-letter to literary agents looked like.

"Dear Sir/Madam,
I climb trees. Here are a series of straightforward records of the trees I have climbed. Do publish.
Yours faithfully,
Jack Cooke,"

"Dear Jack,
What a simply marvellous idea!
Some brown-sounding person just sent in a manuscript describing their very colourful and thrilling adventures climbing trees from all over the globe, but we rejected it because we couldn't for the life of us think where such a book would fit on the shelves. But now you mention it, we do believe their may just be a bit of a market for such a tree-hugging book and it will sell like hot cakes . After all, only white people truly love nature, and your name is far more palatable for the average consumer.
You sir, have got yourself a deal!
Kind regards,
Elizabeth Dogwater"

I paid £1 for this book at Poundland and I'm still disappointed. I have learnt nothing new about trees or tree-climbing. Instead, I have wasted my time reading some rando humblebrag about all the trees he's climbed whilst warning his readers not to climn trees just to brag. Mmkay.

[Zara · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is nothing about Cooke’s book which feels like it was done by his own efforts. He credits leaning on others tree-knowledge, depending on societies changing relationships to trees which he observes in writing this book & he delivers it in partnership with his wife’s sweet illustrations. It’s a gorgeous easy read which feels like a real team effort and comment on people’s diverse relationships with trees - whether it’s a site of play or a site hardly noticed. I appreciate his sentiments that tree-climbing re-invites us into back into the power of our own limbs and away from the pixels of our screens (p23). That it allows us to navigate barely ordered chaos…

I really enjoyed the bite-sized chapters & reading this book set in London, while living here. I’m keen to make use of the emptied field notes pages and to unveil how I might see the city differently now, perhaps from more aerial views.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I heard a talk by Jack and he was fantastic. Some time later I got round to picking up his book and I feel bad saying I found it hard work at times. Would definitely work better as something to dip in and out of rather than read cover to cover. It’s at its best when he’s talking about climbing in general, which is a shame as most of the book is about individual trees where there is a frustrating technique of describing inconsequential happenings in the background. I assume this is intended to set the scene and make it seem real, but I just found it odd! Overall a wistful and rather poetic book that a lot of time has clearly been invested in. Just a shame it doesn’t grab and pull you in more easily.

[Schae Fer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun to pick up, but gets rather repetitive once you get about a third of the way in. As an arborist, this book is not at all what I expected it to be. It's more a series of love letters to recreational tree climbing than any sort of a guide. It's lacking the specific scientific knowledge that I'd like to see in other love-letter-like nature non-fiction, like Robin Wall-Kimmerer writes into Braiding Sweetgrass and Gathering Moss.

[Parkpoom · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you are not living in UK (even worse, Northern Hemisphere), I don't recommend you to read the book. The author wrote about his experiences when he climbed each type of trees (as well as some guides/tips), so it was difficult for the reader who live outside the similar geography to enjoy his book to the fullest.

[Jepha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really nice if you want a reminder to look at what's really around you. More people should spend more time climbing trees. Equally good for born Londoners and for those who were adopted by her. This book will teach you about hidden worlds you never knew existed, right outside your door.

[Brittany · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. Memoirs from a man climbing urban trees around London. First few chapters were great but then it got repetitive and boring. Might be more exciting if you are familiar with lots of species of trees and/or the city of London.

[TheBookishLadybird · Rating 2 out of 5]

The audiobook was read by the author & he was EXTREMELY dry & boring. The information within the book was mildly interesting though

[Frances Pope · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect little book. I bought it in a quirky bookstore in London and have been dipping into it ever since. Treat it like a poetry book mixed with a muse for adventure.

[Liberty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming and inspiring

[Amanda Stoeckmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book looked too fun and unusual to pass up at the local used books store, but I ended up enjoying it less than I’d expected. My favorite parts were the dedication (“To my mother, who has a great love of trees and a mortal fear of heights”) and a description of an old gardener accidentally spraying tourists with his garden hose while saying hello. I guess I’d expected a collection of funny and exciting tree-climbing stories (after all, the subtitle is “adventures in the urban canopy”). But I suppose there isn’t much adventure in climbing London’s trees. Or maybe I just don’t love trees as much as I thought I did. I also got tired of the evolutionary theory mumbo jumbo pretty quickly (just because we think climbing trees is fun doesn’t mean we used to be animals), and I was grossed out by some of the crass descriptions. While reading this book, I climbed one tree (a beautiful oak overlooking a lake), and I enjoyed the “adventure,” but as I continued reading this book through the next few weeks I felt less and less motivated to climb another.

[Brandi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was annoyed with the author's frequent anti-technology references in the beginning, the standard "we spend too much time looking at screens these days to appreciate the natural world," which is just such a lazy and unimaginative way of thinking; the nature/technology binary is not a necessary or productive construct. However, I was delighted by the descriptions of his actual interactions with trees. The details he notices, and the fanciful way he narrates them, are enchanting. Read it for the sketches, not for the philosophy, and you'll be grand.

[Q]

DNF at 26%. The beginning essays were interesting (if impossible to actually back up with science), but beyond that, this book isn't useful if you don't live in London (or the UK more generally, perhaps). And I'm still really sad that it's a misdemeanor to climb public trees in NYC.