![I’ve been reading Roger Deakin’s book, Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees, which explores our human love of trees. It is full of fascinating facts, like the origins of the apple, for example, combined with Deakin’s singular take on the world. As his friend Robert MacFarlane wrote after Deakin’s death, “[…] Trees to him were herd creatures, best understood when considered in their relationships with one another (he loved the way that oak trees, for instance, would share nutrients via their root systems when one of their number was under stress). Trees were human to Deakin, and humans tree-like, in hundreds of complicated and deeply felt ways.”
Deakin’s other book, Waterlog, similarly records his journey across Britain by swimming in every rock pool, river, mountain tarn and open-air swimming pool he could find, inspired by John Cheever’s short story, “The Swimmer.” It is a highly lyrical, eccentric, personal and at times angry book that galvanized English public opinion on the issue of greater access to the country’s natural landscape.
Deakin lived his life so deeply in tune with nature. He wrote endlessly about sleeping out in meadows, living in yurts, and swimming in his 16th-century moat everyday and in all kinds of weather. Reading him makes me want to go outside and really feel the elements, to be so much more aware of the landscape.
Robert McFarlane wrote an incredibly moving tribute to Deakin in the Guardian last year.](http://media.tumblr.com/GBthq4dv0ahxnuaqE7GWu3Tk_500.jpg)
I’ve been reading Roger Deakin’s book, Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees, which explores our human love of trees. It is full of fascinating facts, like the origins of the apple, for example, combined with Deakin’s singular take on the world. As his friend Robert MacFarlane wrote after Deakin’s death, “[…] Trees to him were herd creatures, best understood when considered in their relationships with one another (he loved the way that oak trees, for instance, would share nutrients via their root systems when one of their number was under stress). Trees were human to Deakin, and humans tree-like, in hundreds of complicated and deeply felt ways.”
Deakin’s other book, Waterlog, similarly records his journey across Britain by swimming in every rock pool, river, mountain tarn and open-air swimming pool he could find, inspired by John Cheever’s short story, “The Swimmer.” It is a highly lyrical, eccentric, personal and at times angry book that galvanized English public opinion on the issue of greater access to the country’s natural landscape.
Deakin lived his life so deeply in tune with nature. He wrote endlessly about sleeping out in meadows, living in yurts, and swimming in his 16th-century moat everyday and in all kinds of weather. Reading him makes me want to go outside and really feel the elements, to be so much more aware of the landscape.
Robert McFarlane wrote an incredibly moving tribute to Deakin in the Guardian last year.