
In Beechcombings, Richard Mabey traces the long history of the beech tree
- covering Europe as well as Britain
- & is part autobiography, history & natural history. Beech trees reached Britain about 8, 000 years ago, & they were workhorses, not ornaments
- fuel for Rome's glassworks; firewood for London; oars for the ships of Venice; raw material for furniture, cut & turned by 'bodgers' who lived like nomads among the trees in huts made from beechwood shavings. His beeches are characterful
- 'hectic, gale-sculpted, gnomic'
- & he writes about the bluebells, orchids, fungi, deer & badgers associated with them, as well as the narratives we tell about trees & the images we make of them. Many other kinds of tree are featured, & the portraits & celebrations of the beech always point to the larger story. More than all this, Beechcombings is a personal investigation of the ambivalent, enigmatic relationship that humans have with trees.