Trees provide shelter, medicine and food. They are part of our imaginations, folklore, ecosystems and our lives. Diana Beresford-Kroeger, a world expert on trees, has woven together ecology, myth, horticulture, spirituality and science to show how their future is ours. From hedgerows that contain an entire chain of life to trees that can breathe, heal, nurture and even communicate, each of these forty interlocking essays shows us the enormous significance of the global forest, of which we are all a part. 'Beautifully written . . . As I walked to work this morning, I began to see the trees with a newfound respect and awe' New Scientist 'Has the potential to do for trees what Rachel Carson's Silent Spring did for peregrines . . . Easy to read, each of her short essays could inspire a week's meditation . . . amazing' BBC Wildlife 'Did you know that oak trees create their own sunscreen? That a child can receive protection from leukaemia simply from holding a green walnut? Or that each species of tree is responsible for about 40 species of insects? . . . this book invites the reader to see with new eyes, to wonder and to begin to understand' The Tablet