Recommended Nature Book
'The Oak Papers'
Recommended nature book - The Oak Papers by James Canton.
The Oak Papers by James CantonNature book about oak trees & our connection with nature
I love trees, so I was excited to read The Oak Papers by James Canton.
The book is a series of dated entries, each relating to a visit to an oak tree or conversation about oak trees with other oak enthusiasts.
Most of the book is about a remarkable ancient oak tree, the Honywood Oak, on the Marks Hall Estate in North Essex.
The tree is more than 800 years old and is now a solitary tree on the estate, but there were once around 300 other ancient oaks stood together, that were all felled in the 1950s for timber – just the Honywood Oak remaining.
The author regularly visits the Honywood Oak to find moments of calm in nature, which also reflect to feelings of emotional and mental calm. These moments draw him back to the tree time and time again and inspires him to research the tree’s history and explore the significance of oak trees in our lives through conversations with others knowledgeable about this tree in particular or oak trees in general.
In Britain, we think of the oak tree as a particularly British tree, emblematic of the nation. But we are not the only nation who feels that way about the oak. In other countries, too, people feel that the tree is somehow symbolic of their very humanity and sense of self.
The oak tree has a long history of being revered. In Celtic Britain, druids saw the oak as sacred. And in other cultures, too, the people of prehistory saw special significance in the oak trees of their lands.
Canton writes that the Roman god of fields and forests, Sylvanus, has links to the motif of the Green Man seen in churches over Europe and in tales of the Green Knight of Arthurian legend.
Until the Industrial Revolution, life revolved around the countryside for more people and countryside practices recognising the value of their community trees were widespread. Today, we’d call such practices ‘pagan’ – actually meaning ‘of the countryside’ – so ideas of tree worship may have simply been understandable reverence for the importance of the oak tree in the ecosystem of the countryside.
Canton also explores the notion of ‘green children’ mysteriously appearing in history, often with green skin and said to have arrived from another world or dimension.
The history of the Honywood Oak and the hundreds of its sisters and brothers, felled in the 1950s, provides food for thought: the felling of the trees; questions over trees thriving in community; down to building a relationship with an oak tree through recognition of it as an individual.
In spending time with the oak, the author recognises he feels calmer and happier and wonders how this can be in conversation with researcher Mike Rogerson who notes that the natural curves of nature are more relaxing than the harsh straight lines of the manmade world, while being physically away from our everyday stresses pushes them further from our minds…
“You’re in an environment where you feel connected,” he says, which leads us to feeling “immersed and engaged with the environment – you might be looking at the birds, hearing their songs – so there is attentive activity but it’s what we call ‘effortless attention’.” This is all leading to the notion of the ‘meditative state’ – and all the things we also gain through nature journaling!
Canton looks into plant neurobiology, wondering about plant intelligence and plant communication, and he explores feelings of spirituality around nature and oaks, investigating meditative practices of seeking to become the oak.
It’s the same connection to nature that we find in nature
journaling – taking the time to engage our senses, body and mind, in the
natural world and instinctively feeling its energy in return, providing us with
the same benefits as James Canton finds in his passing time in company with the
oaks – peace and calm.
James Canton quotes a poem that he relates to his quest for calm in nature. It’s also one that I too felt like I was learning to live by when I started drawing nature a decade ago, and still feel I need it as a reminder to slow down and connect with nature.
“What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.”
(W.H. Davies)
The book was enjoyable and easy to read. Although I initially saw it as a non-fiction book (which it clearly is), I ended up taking it upstairs to read in bed in place of my usual novel as it has a real feel of a story and is easy to feel engaged with. I would've liked more pictures though, to see more of the trees the author was talking about.
I also saw in it lots that related to my own feelings of wanting to connect with nature to relax, de-stress, and re-energize – and parallels between how the author’s time spent with the oak trees reflects time spent consciously and in meditative ‘flow’ writing and drawing in my nature journal, and how that benefits us, body and soul.
For this reason, I heartily recommend it as a good and thought-provoking read.
You can read an excerpt from the book here...
If you like trees, do come back soon, as I've got several favourite tree books that I'll be adding my recommendations for on this site in due course.
In the meantime, I've got more of my personal best books for nature lovers on this page - with space for you to leave your own nature book recommendations, too...
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