Immortal Yew, The

Description

Yew trees are some of the oldest living organisms in Europe, with particular individuals thought to be over 2,000 years old. Often found growing in churchyards, the English yew or common yew (Taxus baccata) is surrounded in myth and mystery, and its influence can be found throughout history. In The Immortal Yew author Tony Hall takes the reader on a fascinating journey to the ancient yew trees of Britain and Ireland, exploring their mythology and folklore. Tony provides profiles on over 75 publicly accessible yews, with details on their appearance, location, folklore and history, all accompanied with photographs of these stunning individuals. Each tree has its own story to tell, from fragmented, sprawling trunks, ones you can sit inside of, and ancient individuals propped up.

Tony Hall is Manager of the Arboretum and Gardens at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where he has worked for the past 17 years. His fascination with natural history began at a young age, and he has been working in horticulture for 40 years. He is the author of Wild Plants of Southern Spain (Kew Publishing, 2017).

"This gorgeous volume catalogs 76 remarkable yew trees scattered throughout Great Britain. In its function as a catalog alone it is a worthy read, but it offers much more. The Immortal Yew is a love letter to the oldest living thing in the United Kingdom; some yews live several thousand years! . . . This book would make a wonderful gift to an amateur botanist or a useful addition to a university classroom." -- "Choice" "Tony Hall, author of the Immortal Yew, is arboretum and gardens manager at Kew, and writes with such lucidity and authority that I believe anything he writes. A yew can be disciplined, but leave it untended for a few centuries and it develops a weird habit of growth, the vast girth of the hollow trunk encircled by arcades and pillars formed by thickened and gnarled roots. Hall illustrates his book with his own colour photographs of ancient British specimens, all of them outstanding, and--more or less--upstanding. . . . This is a handsome book."--Victoria Glendinning "Literary Review"