‘The Oak Papers’

Zoom Event with Dr James Canton

7pm Friday 4th September

Blending personal experience with cultural legacy, this homage to the oak tree presents a case for the important role it plays today: in our landscape and in our lives.

Join us in conversation with James Canton – this Zoom event is free but spaces are limited so please book in advance. Register, and a link will be circulated before the event. Signed copies of the book can ordered in advance.

Booking form on the right >>>>>>>>

A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week

‘A profound meditation on the human need for connection with nature’ Peter Wohlleben

James Canton spent two years sitting with and studying the Honywood Oak. A colossus of a tree, it would have been a sapling when Magna Carta was signed. Inevitably he needs to slow down in order to appreciate it fully, to tune in to its slower time frame, to connect with the ecosystem that lives around it, inside it and beneath it. He examines our long-standing dependency on oak trees, and how that has developed and morphed into myth and legend. We no longer build our houses and boats from them or grind their acorns into flour in times of famine; physically we don’t need them in the same way now. Or do we?

The Oak Papers is a stunning, meditative and healing book about the lessons we can learn from the natural world, if only we slow down enough to listen.

About the Author

© JNVisuals

Dr James Canton runs the Wild Writing MA at the University of Essex and has done since its inception in 2009.

He is the author of Ancient Wonderings (2017) and Out of Essex: Re-Imagining a Literary Landscape (2013) which was inspired by his rural wandering in East Anglia. He was awarded his PhD by the University of Essex and reviews for the TLS, Caught by the River and Earthlines. Canton is a regular on television and radio and lectures frequently.

Praise for ‘The Oak Papers’

“James Canton knows so much, writes so well and understands so deeply about the true forest magic and the important place these trees have in it. Knowledge and joy”
SARA MAITLAND

“With rare delicacy and precision, James Canton has captured the magnificence and mystique of the oak tree. The Oak Papers is a book of deep knowledge, perception and love”
PHILIP MARSDEN

“This is a moving, poetic and life-affirming exploration of the idea that a person can form a rich and rewarding bond with an individual tree. The Oak Papers possesses great sensitivity, real wisdom and a deep mystical power”
PATRICK BARKHAM

“An enchanting piece of nature writing and a meditation on finding connection in a disconnected world”
Independent

“This is a profound meditation on the human need for connection with nature, as one man seeks solace beneath the boughs of an ancient oak tree. The tree and its surrounds come to life in shimmering detail, and Canton’s writing has an exquisite, somewhat dreamlike quality”
PETER WOHLLEBEN, AUTHOR OF THE HIDDEN LIFE OF TREES