Synopses & Reviews
A landmark volume celebrating the most remarkable trees on our planet. The spirit of nineteenth-century naturalistic exploration lives in British historian Thomas Pakenham, who has spent the last decade chronicling the lives of the world's most dramatic trees, many of which are in danger of destruction. After the world-wide success of his previous work, Meetings With Remarkable Treesa stunning collection of 60 individual trees (and groups of trees) in Britain and Ireland chosen for their unusually strong personalitiesPakenham decided to hunt down and photograph another 60 remarkable trees scattered throughout the globe. Many of these trees were already famous-champions by girth, height, volume or age-while others had never previously been caught by the camera. Pakenham's five-year odyssey, sweating it out with a 30 pound Linhof camera and tripod, took him to most of the temperate and many of the tropical regions of the world. Although North American trees dominate this book, Pakenham also trekked to remote regions in Mexico, all over Europe, parts of Asia including Japan, northern and southern Africa, Madagascar, Australia and New Zealand. Despite his expert knowledge, the book owes little to conventional botany. Like its predecessor, Remarkable Trees of the World is arranged according to the characters of the trees themselves. There are Giants and Dwarfs, Methuselahs, Shrines, Dreams, Lovers and Dancers, Ghosts and Trees in Peril. The chief Giant is General Sherman in the Sierra Nevada, California. At over 1400 tons, the grizzled old general, a giant-sequoia, is the world's largest tree, measured by volume - indeed the largest single living thing in the world. The height record, however, goes to another commanding Californian, a 368-foot high Coast redwood recently declared the tallest tree in the world. Among the Methuselahs, Pakenham describes the wind-blasted bristlecone pines of the White Mountains of California. One of them, Old Methuselah himself, was found to be 4,600 years old, making him the oldest tree yet measured by scientists. Shrines include some of the holiest trees in the world, like the immense camphor trees preserved in Shinto shrines in Japan and the 2,200 year old Bo-tree in Sri Lanka, a cutting from the actual tree under which Buddha found enlightenment. Trees in Peril are the trees under attack by predatory loggers and impoverished farmers, including the exotic baobabs of Madagascar, now threatened by intensive farming, and the Great Spruce and Douglas Fir and Redcedars of Pacific North America in whose defense the conservationists have been fighting the loggers for decades. Remarkable Trees of the World is a magnificent work that celebrates the investigative genius of Thomas Pakenham. It will be treasured for generations by all those who marvel at the wonders of nature.
Review
"Spectacular...the specimens photographed here are surpassingly bizarre and varied....[An] astonishing collection." Janet Maslin
Review
"Pakenham captures [the trees' character] expertly in his text and photographs....truly remarkable." Maia Weinstock Discover magazine
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Informative and inspiring.
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"Informative and inspiring." New York Times
Synopsis
Many of these trees were already famous champions by girth, height, volume or age while others had never previously been caught by the camera. Pakenham's five-year odyssey, sweating it out with a 30 pound Linhof camera and tripod, took him to most of the temperate and many of the tropical regions of the world. Although North American trees dominate this book, Pakenham also trekked to remote regions in Mexico, all over Europe, parts of Asia including Japan, northern and southern Africa, Madagascar, Australia and New Zealand Remarkable Trees of the World is a lavish work that will be treasured for generations by all those who marvel at nature. "
Synopsis
The publication of took American audiences by storm. Thomas Pakenham embarks on a five-year odyssey to most of the temperate and tropical regions of the world to photograph sixty trees of remarkable personality and presence: Dwarfs, Giants, Monuments, and Aliens; the lovingly tended midgets of Japan; the enormous strangler from India; and the 4,700-year "Old Methusalehs." American readers will be fascinated by Pakenham's first examination of North American trees, including the towering Redwoods of Sequoia and Yosemite, the gaunt Joshua Trees of Death Valley and the Bristlecone pines discovered in California's White Mountains. Many of these trees were already famous--champions by girth, height, volume or age--while others had never previously been caught by the camera. Pakenham's five-year odyssey, sweating it out with a 30 pound Linhof camera and tripod, took him to most of the temperate and many of the tropical regions of the world. Although North American trees dominate this book, Pakenham also trekked to remote regions in Mexico, all over Europe, parts of Asia including Japan, northern and southern Africa, Madagascar, Australia and New Zealand. is a lavish work that will be treasured for generations by all those who marvel at nature.
Synopsis
"A stunning volume" () and the most magnificent book on the world's trees published in years.
About the Author
Thomas Pakenham's Meetings with Remarkable Trees received international acclaim. His other books include Remarkable Trees of the World, The Boer War and The Scramble for Africa, which won the Alan Paton Award. He lives in London.