This is a lovely book – beautiful trees, photographed well (it helps that they don’t run around I guess) and in gorgeous surroundings. Fifty types of tree from across the world are selected and that simple idea works very well. We are given portraits of individual trees and landscapes clothed in their masses as well as close-ups of flowers, bark and fruits.
None of the featured trees from Australia made a big impression on me on my one visit but there were so many marsupials, coral reefs, birds and fruit bats that one tended to look into or past the trees. However in North America there are some real ‘destination’ trees and I’m pleased that I’ve got a bunch of these in my memory and the Giant Sequoia, Bristlecone Pine, Quaking Aspen, Sugar Maple, Ponderosa Pine and Joshua Tree all leap out from my memories very easily. America has great trees – I wonder whether President-elect Trump appreciates them? Maybe Orange groves?
Our little continent provides homely offerings such as Olive, Holly, Yew and Cork Oak – I like them all.
Given that this book is published by Lonely Planet it may have the intention of luring you into flying around the world to look at trees. I won’t be doing that but I have done a relatively small amount of flying in my life (see here) and now plan not to do it again. I’m very happy to look at these amazing photographs – it is a beautiful book – and remember places I’ve been and admire the places I haven’t been at a distance.
I learned a lot about trees from this book (but then, I start from a low baseline) and it certainly isn’t just a picture book (though it has wonderful images).
The cover? That’s quite striking but it isn’t the image I would have chosen from the book, but it certainly gives the impression that this book is, indeed about trees and that some of them are very striking. I’d give it 7/10.
The Tree Atlas: the world’s most amazing trees and where to find them by Matthew Collins with Thomas Rutter is published by Lonely Planet.
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