BOOK REVIEWS

Remarkable Trees of the World

Meetings with Remarkable Trees

Thomas Pakenham
Distributed by Allen & Unwin
$NZ42.95 ea.

THOMAS Pakenham, tree hunter extraordinaire, needs little introduction. It's seven years since his first "tree" book, Meetings with Remarkable Trees, was published. Remarkable Trees of the World was published last year and both books are out again, reprinted as smaller - and more affordable - companions.

The author has descriptive powers to equal a marvellous addiction to his subject. Listen to an introductory snippet from Meetings. "I have spent four wild years roaming the world, and ransacking it for trees with noble brows and strong personalities . I hope it will help you meet some new ones and that you, too, will cry "Wow" when you stand in their presence."

If his tales of trees are intriguing, the pictures are nothing but awe-inspiring. Pakenham lugged a 12kg Linhof camera and tripod around the world to capture the images for his latest book. Fittingly, first up in chapter one of 'Remarkable Trees' is our own taonga, the huge kauri Te Matua Ngahere, dwarfing the author.

Warning: don't try to buy these books as presents - you'll only end up keeping them for yourself.

Reproduced with permission from the former Weekend Gardener magazine. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the RNZIH