James Canton (Ancient Wonderings; Out of Essex) spends hours, days, months and years with one particular oak tree. Moved by its power and continually fascinated by its individuality, Canton undertook a study of the connection between oaks and people. After consulting history, mythology, spirituality, science, a number of individual woodmen and -women, and more time spent in the company of oaks, he offers The Oak Papers, part personal reflection and part research project.
The Honywood Oak, at the Marks Hall Estate near London, draws Canton in. During a period of personal turmoil, he finds himself sitting under this massive 800-year-old tree, "a mere sapling when the Magna Carta was signed." He watches birds and insects and hares, and the changing seasons; he finds himself returning just to spend time with the Honywood Oak and feels a healing effect. Canton's more purposeful studies begin in the company of the estate's "curator of trees," and in his readings: Dante, T.S. Eliot, Pliny, Woolf and many others.
The Oak Papers is meticulous and dense with detailed observations not only of oaks--the seasonal variations in their leaves, buds and acorns--but of the lives they support: heron, wood butterfly, mosses, lichen, hare, gall wasp. The bulk of these papers sees Canton sitting and watching, although he also recounts visits with people who know oaks well: artists and craftspeople who work with wood, spiritual thinkers, a psychologist who specializes in nature therapies. He lovingly concludes that "there are many paths to seeking the truths about oaks" and that "we all become better beings when we step back into the woods." --Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia