A real gem, 25 Apr 2008
This book is fascinating for any tree enthusiast.
It is the perfect tool you can use to identify different tree types.
The writing style is concise and in-depth.
A sheer masterpiece.
Picture quality is high definition. Images are portrayed in vivid detail.
This book is fantastic.
If you are even slightly interested in trees or want to expand your knowledge of trees buy this book.



A dream publication - Sheer quality, 10 Apr 2008
This publication just oozes quality from the high definition colour photography to the research and layout. I have several reference books relating to British trees and this one stands tall above all the others. The number of quality colour photographs is staggering.

If you are seeking a complete reference this book does exactly what it says on the cover, if I could have given it six stars I would have.

A real gem, 25 Apr 2008
This book is fascinating for any tree enthusiast.
It is the perfect tool you can use to identify different tree types.
The writing style is concise and in-depth.
A sheer masterpiece.
Picture quality is high definition. Images are portrayed in vivid detail.
This book is fantastic.
If you are even slightly interested in trees or want to expand your knowledge of trees buy this book.



A dream publication - Sheer quality, 10 Apr 2008
This publication just oozes quality from the high definition colour photography to the research and layout. I have several reference books relating to British trees and this one stands tall above all the others. The number of quality colour photographs is staggering.

If you are seeking a complete reference this book does exactly what it says on the cover, if I could have given it six stars I would have.

A good little book, but with it problems, read below!, 21 Apr 2008
this book is exactly what you would expect from a little Collin's gem, it has good material through out, and a pretty good selection of the most common trees....but, i would have preferred to see real photographs rather than artists drawings, which, sometimes are not as good a reference as an image of the real thing. Furthermore i would have liked to see bigger images of the type of bark from each tree since half the year the trees have no leaves, and the bark, leafless shape, and habitat is all you have to go on.
this is however a good introduction read for summer time tree hunting, wouldn't recommend it for winter though. if you are up for a better book i recommend:-
Collins Complete Guide to British Trees: A Photographic Guide to Every Common Species

great little book, 02 Apr 2008
this book is great for people who have just got into trees and want to find them and has some good facts

Recommended for tree spotting beginners, 22 Nov 2007
I lead tree courses and often recommend this little book for beginners. It has all the information and illustrations you need to get started, with, in my opinion, excellent pictures of leaves, flowers, fruit, winter twigs, bark and, best of all, the tree. Tree shapes in this book are truer than in many more ambitious works.

Compact, That is its Beauty, 13 Jul 2007

No, this is not the best book ever written about trees, but it is handy to have in your pocket. and on a walk or in the countryside you will not see many trees that are not in this book.

As one reviewer has already said the drawings could be better, but they are adequate for the casual 'tree spotter' The information given about each tree is also adequate. There are many more advanced books that can be purchased for the real tree enthusiast (if there is such a term) and these can be used at home after you have made an identification from the Collins gem.

Easy, simple and fun, 27 Jan 2007
Bought this book when we moved into a new house in '06. We now have five trees in our garden and plenty more in the surrounding area. Being an inquisitive sort of person I wanted to know what they were and decided on this little book from some reviews on Amazon. I was not dissapointed, really easy to use and in no time I had found out what I wanted. Clear and easy instructions and illustrations too. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

A real gem, 25 Apr 2008
This book is fascinating for any tree enthusiast.
It is the perfect tool you can use to identify different tree types.
The writing style is concise and in-depth.
A sheer masterpiece.
Picture quality is high definition. Images are portrayed in vivid detail.
This book is fantastic.
If you are even slightly interested in trees or want to expand your knowledge of trees buy this book.



A dream publication - Sheer quality, 10 Apr 2008
This publication just oozes quality from the high definition colour photography to the research and layout. I have several reference books relating to British trees and this one stands tall above all the others. The number of quality colour photographs is staggering.

If you are seeking a complete reference this book does exactly what it says on the cover, if I could have given it six stars I would have.

A good little book, but with it problems, read below!, 21 Apr 2008
this book is exactly what you would expect from a little Collin's gem, it has good material through out, and a pretty good selection of the most common trees....but, i would have preferred to see real photographs rather than artists drawings, which, sometimes are not as good a reference as an image of the real thing. Furthermore i would have liked to see bigger images of the type of bark from each tree since half the year the trees have no leaves, and the bark, leafless shape, and habitat is all you have to go on.
this is however a good introduction read for summer time tree hunting, wouldn't recommend it for winter though. if you are up for a better book i recommend:-
Collins Complete Guide to British Trees: A Photographic Guide to Every Common Species

great little book, 02 Apr 2008
this book is great for people who have just got into trees and want to find them and has some good facts

Recommended for tree spotting beginners, 22 Nov 2007
I lead tree courses and often recommend this little book for beginners. It has all the information and illustrations you need to get started, with, in my opinion, excellent pictures of leaves, flowers, fruit, winter twigs, bark and, best of all, the tree. Tree shapes in this book are truer than in many more ambitious works.

Compact, That is its Beauty, 13 Jul 2007

No, this is not the best book ever written about trees, but it is handy to have in your pocket. and on a walk or in the countryside you will not see many trees that are not in this book.

As one reviewer has already said the drawings could be better, but they are adequate for the casual 'tree spotter' The information given about each tree is also adequate. There are many more advanced books that can be purchased for the real tree enthusiast (if there is such a term) and these can be used at home after you have made an identification from the Collins gem.

Easy, simple and fun, 27 Jan 2007
Bought this book when we moved into a new house in '06. We now have five trees in our garden and plenty more in the surrounding area. Being an inquisitive sort of person I wanted to know what they were and decided on this little book from some reviews on Amazon. I was not dissapointed, really easy to use and in no time I had found out what I wanted. Clear and easy instructions and illustrations too. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

A wood that pays is a wood that stays, 30 Aug 2007
An excellent book for students and landowners, it starts with a brief history of woodland in Britain, followed by a chapter on tree biology and sylvicultural systems which is comprehensive and written in refreshingly plain english. The native and commonly used non-native trees are then detailed followed by how to draw up a management plan, essential if you want grant aid. Then the nitty-gritty of planting, protecting, measurement and marketing.

This is a very practical book on managing woodlands as a whole, very sensitive to their wildlife and landscape value but stressing that woodlands that pay are more likely to last.

A Starr read!, 29 Mar 2006
I found this book to be an insightful and stimulating guide to managing woodlands. The authour's writing style holds your attention and the information supplied is highly relevant and will be of value to a wide range of readers. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone with a keen interest in purchasing or managing woodlands in the future.

Good Introduction, 07 Jan 2006
This book is an excellent introduction to Forest Management. It starts from the beginning, with no assumption of prior knowledge.

Ideal for potential forestry students as well as those with an interest in woodland.

A real gem, 25 Apr 2008
This book is fascinating for any tree enthusiast.
It is the perfect tool you can use to identify different tree types.
The writing style is concise and in-depth.
A sheer masterpiece.
Picture quality is high definition. Images are portrayed in vivid detail.
This book is fantastic.
If you are even slightly interested in trees or want to expand your knowledge of trees buy this book.



A dream publication - Sheer quality, 10 Apr 2008
This publication just oozes quality from the high definition colour photography to the research and layout. I have several reference books relating to British trees and this one stands tall above all the others. The number of quality colour photographs is staggering.

If you are seeking a complete reference this book does exactly what it says on the cover, if I could have given it six stars I would have.

A good little book, but with it problems, read below!, 21 Apr 2008
this book is exactly what you would expect from a little Collin's gem, it has good material through out, and a pretty good selection of the most common trees....but, i would have preferred to see real photographs rather than artists drawings, which, sometimes are not as good a reference as an image of the real thing. Furthermore i would have liked to see bigger images of the type of bark from each tree since half the year the trees have no leaves, and the bark, leafless shape, and habitat is all you have to go on.
this is however a good introduction read for summer time tree hunting, wouldn't recommend it for winter though. if you are up for a better book i recommend:-
Collins Complete Guide to British Trees: A Photographic Guide to Every Common Species

great little book, 02 Apr 2008
this book is great for people who have just got into trees and want to find them and has some good facts

Recommended for tree spotting beginners, 22 Nov 2007
I lead tree courses and often recommend this little book for beginners. It has all the information and illustrations you need to get started, with, in my opinion, excellent pictures of leaves, flowers, fruit, winter twigs, bark and, best of all, the tree. Tree shapes in this book are truer than in many more ambitious works.

Compact, That is its Beauty, 13 Jul 2007

No, this is not the best book ever written about trees, but it is handy to have in your pocket. and on a walk or in the countryside you will not see many trees that are not in this book.

As one reviewer has already said the drawings could be better, but they are adequate for the casual 'tree spotter' The information given about each tree is also adequate. There are many more advanced books that can be purchased for the real tree enthusiast (if there is such a term) and these can be used at home after you have made an identification from the Collins gem.

Easy, simple and fun, 27 Jan 2007
Bought this book when we moved into a new house in '06. We now have five trees in our garden and plenty more in the surrounding area. Being an inquisitive sort of person I wanted to know what they were and decided on this little book from some reviews on Amazon. I was not dissapointed, really easy to use and in no time I had found out what I wanted. Clear and easy instructions and illustrations too. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

A wood that pays is a wood that stays, 30 Aug 2007
An excellent book for students and landowners, it starts with a brief history of woodland in Britain, followed by a chapter on tree biology and sylvicultural systems which is comprehensive and written in refreshingly plain english. The native and commonly used non-native trees are then detailed followed by how to draw up a management plan, essential if you want grant aid. Then the nitty-gritty of planting, protecting, measurement and marketing.

This is a very practical book on managing woodlands as a whole, very sensitive to their wildlife and landscape value but stressing that woodlands that pay are more likely to last.

A Starr read!, 29 Mar 2006
I found this book to be an insightful and stimulating guide to managing woodlands. The authour's writing style holds your attention and the information supplied is highly relevant and will be of value to a wide range of readers. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone with a keen interest in purchasing or managing woodlands in the future.

Good Introduction, 07 Jan 2006
This book is an excellent introduction to Forest Management. It starts from the beginning, with no assumption of prior knowledge.

Ideal for potential forestry students as well as those with an interest in woodland.

Another superb book from Archie!, 14 Jan 2008
This is an exceptional book, containing superb photographs beautifully reproduced. Archie Miles is a well-known photographer with a penchant for trees, with previous publications such as The Trees That Made Britain and Silva, and this latest offering continues in the same vein. His photographic work is technically faultless, combining an intimate knowledge and passion of the subject with superb, crisp, beautifully-lit pictures of the whole range of British trees shown nicely in their respective environments. Many of the locations have to remain secret, as they're on private land. But the other locations are listed in a comprehensive Gazetteer, which even tells you how easy it is to reach them on foot. I hate the term "Coffee Table Book", as it implies the book will sit there looking beautiful but mostly un-read. But be sure if you love trees and know the difference between mundane and exceptional photography, then this book will stay on your coffee table for years, and you'll struggle to put it down!

A real gem, 25 Apr 2008
This book is fascinating for any tree enthusiast.
It is the perfect tool you can use to identify different tree types.
The writing style is concise and in-depth.
A sheer masterpiece.
Picture quality is high definition. Images are portrayed in vivid detail.
This book is fantastic.
If you are even slightly interested in trees or want to expand your knowledge of trees buy this book.



A dream publication - Sheer quality, 10 Apr 2008
This publication just oozes quality from the high definition colour photography to the research and layout. I have several reference books relating to British trees and this one stands tall above all the others. The number of quality colour photographs is staggering.

If you are seeking a complete reference this book does exactly what it says on the cover, if I could have given it six stars I would have.

A good little book, but with it problems, read below!, 21 Apr 2008
this book is exactly what you would expect from a little Collin's gem, it has good material through out, and a pretty good selection of the most common trees....but, i would have preferred to see real photographs rather than artists drawings, which, sometimes are not as good a reference as an image of the real thing. Furthermore i would have liked to see bigger images of the type of bark from each tree since half the year the trees have no leaves, and the bark, leafless shape, and habitat is all you have to go on.
this is however a good introduction read for summer time tree hunting, wouldn't recommend it for winter though. if you are up for a better book i recommend:-
Collins Complete Guide to British Trees: A Photographic Guide to Every Common Species

great little book, 02 Apr 2008
this book is great for people who have just got into trees and want to find them and has some good facts

Recommended for tree spotting beginners, 22 Nov 2007
I lead tree courses and often recommend this little book for beginners. It has all the information and illustrations you need to get started, with, in my opinion, excellent pictures of leaves, flowers, fruit, winter twigs, bark and, best of all, the tree. Tree shapes in this book are truer than in many more ambitious works.

Compact, That is its Beauty, 13 Jul 2007

No, this is not the best book ever written about trees, but it is handy to have in your pocket. and on a walk or in the countryside you will not see many trees that are not in this book.

As one reviewer has already said the drawings could be better, but they are adequate for the casual 'tree spotter' The information given about each tree is also adequate. There are many more advanced books that can be purchased for the real tree enthusiast (if there is such a term) and these can be used at home after you have made an identification from the Collins gem.

Easy, simple and fun, 27 Jan 2007
Bought this book when we moved into a new house in '06. We now have five trees in our garden and plenty more in the surrounding area. Being an inquisitive sort of person I wanted to know what they were and decided on this little book from some reviews on Amazon. I was not dissapointed, really easy to use and in no time I had found out what I wanted. Clear and easy instructions and illustrations too. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

A wood that pays is a wood that stays, 30 Aug 2007
An excellent book for students and landowners, it starts with a brief history of woodland in Britain, followed by a chapter on tree biology and sylvicultural systems which is comprehensive and written in refreshingly plain english. The native and commonly used non-native trees are then detailed followed by how to draw up a management plan, essential if you want grant aid. Then the nitty-gritty of planting, protecting, measurement and marketing.

This is a very practical book on managing woodlands as a whole, very sensitive to their wildlife and landscape value but stressing that woodlands that pay are more likely to last.

A Starr read!, 29 Mar 2006
I found this book to be an insightful and stimulating guide to managing woodlands. The authour's writing style holds your attention and the information supplied is highly relevant and will be of value to a wide range of readers. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone with a keen interest in purchasing or managing woodlands in the future.

Good Introduction, 07 Jan 2006
This book is an excellent introduction to Forest Management. It starts from the beginning, with no assumption of prior knowledge.

Ideal for potential forestry students as well as those with an interest in woodland.

Another superb book from Archie!, 14 Jan 2008
This is an exceptional book, containing superb photographs beautifully reproduced. Archie Miles is a well-known photographer with a penchant for trees, with previous publications such as The Trees That Made Britain and Silva, and this latest offering continues in the same vein. His photographic work is technically faultless, combining an intimate knowledge and passion of the subject with superb, crisp, beautifully-lit pictures of the whole range of British trees shown nicely in their respective environments. Many of the locations have to remain secret, as they're on private land. But the other locations are listed in a comprehensive Gazetteer, which even tells you how easy it is to reach them on foot. I hate the term "Coffee Table Book", as it implies the book will sit there looking beautiful but mostly un-read. But be sure if you love trees and know the difference between mundane and exceptional photography, then this book will stay on your coffee table for years, and you'll struggle to put it down!

Root and Branch, 12 Oct 2008
I recall hearing Richard Mabey discussing this book on a radio show, before it was published and thinking its premise: collecting contibutors' personal experiences of British plant life, seemed rather uninspired. Surely this kind of thing has been done to death? Nature magazine columns have been filled for years with people writing accounts of things they have seen in the British countryside.

When it was published, I was further put off by the high price of the book.

I was completely wrong on both counts, the price, when the size, scope and quality of the book are considered, seems more than reasonable. As to the premise of the work, Richard Mabey, a genius writer in my opinion, pulls all the various accounts from amateur contributors together into a cohesive and coherent whole, that manages to maintain the same well mannered and good humoured tone throughout its long length.

It is possible to read the book piecemeal, picking out species that interest you specially , but I feel reading it from cover to cover best allows the reader to appreciate what the author has achieved.

This is not an identification guide, although the photographs are of top quality, and the amount of space devoted to each species varies wildly, but the "Flora" succeeds in its aim to be a folk history rather than purely a Natural History work.

Beware of books that may seem to continue this work, e.g."Fauna Britannica", which do not, in fact, have much in common with this fine volume.

mistitled but fun, 22 Sep 2007
It is true that this has to be one of the worse titled books of all time. A FLORA in any sense here should be an identification guide and it isn't that at all - it is a personal exploration of various plants concentrating not necessarily on the most important but on those for which the author has an affection for or simply information on. The main interests are folklore and distribution - industry and use and even literature get short shrift, oddly. It is true too that plant introductions are widely covered, but the distinction in terms of salience would be rather misleading (do we miss out horse-chstnut?...). The joy of this book which frankly does NOT look as though it was twenty years (flap) in the making is the writing and out of the way sources Mabey has dug up and in the feel of the book. A strange bestseller - but not to be dismissed.

Serious misdescription, 23 Aug 2007
Flora Britannica may be a fine book for what it is, as an essay or encyclopedia about British plants, but it is NOT what the title and description clearly imply - a comprehensive identification guide. I myself was misled by this, and indeed by the uncritical acceptance of this blatant misrepresentation by reviewers, and ordered a copy, only to find on opening it that it wasn't at all the comprehensive identification guide that I wanted - and so I'm returning it. A slapped wrist for the publisher, presumably the author, and for Amazon for not checking that the book contents match the meaning of the title and description of the work!

Publishers of nature books generally are being given far too much licence to misrepresent certain books in such a way - such as the Collins "Complete" guides, some of which cannot possibly be anything like complete.

Not for the serious horticulturist, 15 Oct 2004
I was thinking for some positives to write on this book and not much came to mind. It is a perfectly fine book. However the name flora brittanica indicates the plants in this book ought to be indiginous to this land but a great number of them are not. So the author spends time telling us about plants that have been brought over here in the last 100 - 200 years which is of no interest to anyone who is interested in FLORA BRITTANICA. Consequently what could have been a book containing a greater source of information on the fewer number of truly native species becomes a book with little information on a grater number of introduced species. Some of our native species aren't even worthy of a photograph where as japanese knotweed gets 2 photographs all because some idiot brought the wretched plant over here a few hundred years ago because he thought it was decorative. The explanation that goes with (most) the plants is largely centered around ancient beliefs about its uses. Which is o.k to the casual reader but doesn't really interest me. I would have liked to have seen which animals and wildlife benifited from each plant and more about the enviroment the plants naturally inhabit.

A good book overall, 04 Jun 2003
This is a very good encyclopedia, with a lot of information about the history and uses of the various plants found in Britain. My only criticism is that the pictures show the plants in their natural habitat rather than close up. This means it is sometimes difficult to identify the plant from the picture. After saying that, this book is not a hady field guide that you would carry round anyway. It being 400+ pages.
As a home fererence work, I can reccomend it, and I have spent ages browsing through it's pages discovering interesting things about the plants that are all arround us.

Paul

A real gem, 25 Apr 2008
This book is fascinating for any tree enthusiast.
It is the perfect tool you can use to identify different tree types.
The writing style is concise and in-depth.
A sheer masterpiece.
Picture quality is high definition. Images are portrayed in vivid detail.
This book is fantastic.
If you are even slightly interested in trees or want to expand your knowledge of trees buy this book.



A dream publication - Sheer quality, 10 Apr 2008
This publication just oozes quality from the high definition colour photography to the research and layout. I have several reference books relating to British trees and this one stands tall above all the others. The number of quality colour photographs is staggering.

If you are seeking a complete reference this book does exactly what it says on the cover, if I could have given it six stars I would have.

A good little book, but with it problems, read below!, 21 Apr 2008
this book is exactly what you would expect from a little Collin's gem, it has good material through out, and a pretty good selection of the most common trees....but, i would have preferred to see real photographs rather than artists drawings, which, sometimes are not as good a reference as an image of the real thing. Furthermore i would have liked to see bigger images of the type of bark from each tree since half the year the trees have no leaves, and the bark, leafless shape, and habitat is all you have to go on.
this is however a good introduction read for summer time tree hunting, wouldn't recommend it for winter though. if you are up for a better book i recommend:-
Collins Complete Guide to British Trees: A Photographic Guide to Every Common Species

great little book, 02 Apr 2008
this book is great for people who have just got into trees and want to find them and has some good facts

Recommended for tree spotting beginners, 22 Nov 2007
I lead tree courses and often recommend this little book for beginners. It has all the information and illustrations you need to get started, with, in my opinion, excellent pictures of leaves, flowers, fruit, winter twigs, bark and, best of all, the tree. Tree shapes in this book are truer than in many more ambitious works.

Compact, That is its Beauty, 13 Jul 2007

No, this is not the best book ever written about trees, but it is handy to have in your pocket. and on a walk or in the countryside you will not see many trees that are not in this book.

As one reviewer has already said the drawings could be better, but they are adequate for the casual 'tree spotter' The information given about each tree is also adequate. There are many more advanced books that can be purchased for the real tree enthusiast (if there is such a term) and these can be used at home after you have made an identification from the Collins gem.

Easy, simple and fun, 27 Jan 2007
Bought this book when we moved into a new house in '06. We now have five trees in our garden and plenty more in the surrounding area. Being an inquisitive sort of person I wanted to know what they were and decided on this little book from some reviews on Amazon. I was not dissapointed, really easy to use and in no time I had found out what I wanted. Clear and easy instructions and illustrations too. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

A wood that pays is a wood that stays, 30 Aug 2007
An excellent book for students and landowners, it starts with a brief history of woodland in Britain, followed by a chapter on tree biology and sylvicultural systems which is comprehensive and written in refreshingly plain english. The native and commonly used non-native trees are then detailed followed by how to draw up a management plan, essential if you want grant aid. Then the nitty-gritty of planting, protecting, measurement and marketing.

This is a very practical book on managing woodlands as a whole, very sensitive to their wildlife and landscape value but stressing that woodlands that pay are more likely to last.

A Starr read!, 29 Mar 2006
I found this book to be an insightful and stimulating guide to managing woodlands. The authour's writing style holds your attention and the information supplied is highly relevant and will be of value to a wide range of readers. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone with a keen interest in purchasing or managing woodlands in the future.

Good Introduction, 07 Jan 2006
This book is an excellent introduction to Forest Management. It starts from the beginning, with no assumption of prior knowledge.

Ideal for potential forestry students as well as those with an interest in woodland.

Another superb book from Archie!, 14 Jan 2008
This is an exceptional book, containing superb photographs beautifully reproduced. Archie Miles is a well-known photographer with a penchant for trees, with previous publications such as The Trees That Made Britain and Silva, and this latest offering continues in the same vein. His photographic work is technically faultless, combining an intimate knowledge and passion of the subject with superb, crisp, beautifully-lit pictures of the whole range of British trees shown nicely in their respective environments. Many of the locations have to remain secret, as they're on private land. But the other locations are listed in a comprehensive Gazetteer, which even tells you how easy it is to reach them on foot. I hate the term "Coffee Table Book", as it implies the book will sit there looking beautiful but mostly un-read. But be sure if you love trees and know the difference between mundane and exceptional photography, then this book will stay on your coffee table for years, and you'll struggle to put it down!

Root and Branch, 12 Oct 2008
I recall hearing Richard Mabey discussing this book on a radio show, before it was published and thinking its premise: collecting contibutors' personal experiences of British plant life, seemed rather uninspired. Surely this kind of thing has been done to death? Nature magazine columns have been filled for years with people writing accounts of things they have seen in the British countryside.

When it was published, I was further put off by the high price of the book.

I was completely wrong on both counts, the price, when the size, scope and quality of the book are considered, seems more than reasonable. As to the premise of the work, Richard Mabey, a genius writer in my opinion, pulls all the various accounts from amateur contributors together into a cohesive and coherent whole, that manages to maintain the same well mannered and good humoured tone throughout its long length.

It is possible to read the book piecemeal, picking out species that interest you specially , but I feel reading it from cover to cover best allows the reader to appreciate what the author has achieved.

This is not an identification guide, although the photographs are of top quality, and the amount of space devoted to each species varies wildly, but the "Flora" succeeds in its aim to be a folk history rather than purely a Natural History work.

Beware of books that may seem to continue this work, e.g."Fauna Britannica", which do not, in fact, have much in common with this fine volume.

mistitled but fun, 22 Sep 2007
It is true that this has to be one of the worse titled books of all time. A FLORA in any sense here should be an identification guide and it isn't that at all - it is a personal exploration of various plants concentrating not necessarily on the most important but on those for which the author has an affection for or simply information on. The main interests are folklore and distribution - industry and use and even literature get short shrift, oddly. It is true too that plant introductions are widely covered, but the distinction in terms of salience would be rather misleading (do we miss out horse-chstnut?...). The joy of this book which frankly does NOT look as though it was twenty years (flap) in the making is the writing and out of the way sources Mabey has dug up and in the feel of the book. A strange bestseller - but not to be dismissed.

Serious misdescription, 23 Aug 2007
Flora Britannica may be a fine book for what it is, as an essay or encyclopedia about British plants, but it is NOT what the title and description clearly imply - a comprehensive identification guide. I myself was misled by this, and indeed by the uncritical acceptance of this blatant misrepresentation by reviewers, and ordered a copy, only to find on opening it that it wasn't at all the comprehensive identification guide that I wanted - and so I'm returning it. A slapped wrist for the publisher, presumably the author, and for Amazon for not checking that the book contents match the meaning of the title and description of the work!

Publishers of nature books generally are being given far too much licence to misrepresent certain books in such a way - such as the Collins "Complete" guides, some of which cannot possibly be anything like complete.

Not for the serious horticulturist, 15 Oct 2004
I was thinking for some positives to write on this book and not much came to mind. It is a perfectly fine book. However the name flora brittanica indicates the plants in this book ought to be indiginous to this land but a great number of them are not. So the author spends time telling us about plants that have been brought over here in the last 100 - 200 years which is of no interest to anyone who is interested in FLORA BRITTANICA. Consequently what could have been a book containing a greater source of information on the fewer number of truly native species becomes a book with little information on a grater number of introduced species. Some of our native species aren't even worthy of a photograph where as japanese knotweed gets 2 photographs all because some idiot brought the wretched plant over here a few hundred years ago because he thought it was decorative. The explanation that goes with (most) the plants is largely centered around ancient beliefs about its uses. Which is o.k to the casual reader but doesn't really interest me. I would have liked to have seen which animals and wildlife benifited from each plant and more about the enviroment the plants naturally inhabit.

A good book overall, 04 Jun 2003
This is a very good encyclopedia, with a lot of information about the history and uses of the various plants found in Britain. My only criticism is that the pictures show the plants in their natural habitat rather than close up. This means it is sometimes difficult to identify the plant from the picture. After saying that, this book is not a hady field guide that you would carry round anyway. It being 400+ pages.
As a home fererence work, I can reccomend it, and I have spent ages browsing through it's pages discovering interesting things about the plants that are all arround us.

Paul

A fairly useful reference work for the casual reader, but..., 14 Sep 2006
This book is short (83 pages long in all) and is mostly taken up with an alphabetical listing of wood types with a short description and a list of what they have been and are used for. This list is exactly the same as the one on the website www.british-trees.com so check this out first to see if you think the book is worth buying.

There are also 6 (large text) pages on the author's woodland thoughts and 10 pages on making fires. I would have liked these two sections to have been longer as the author is obviously very knowledgable and has a lots of "wood experience" but only shares a small fraction of his knowledge.

There are a few small black and white pictures scattered throughout the book.

Fascinating, 29 May 2006
I've always been interested in trees and history so this book has been a real treat. I thought I knew quite a bit about the uses of wood but many of the possibilities described in this book have been fascinating and mind-boggling. The current uses which could be expanded in the future have been food for thought too and show just how important our natural resources are. The section on burning wood in the home was great - I've always been pretty good at building fires but I'm even better now - the one-match-fire really works - and not a firelighter in sight!

Tree mendous, 09 Apr 2006
What a pleasing little book. I was given mine as a present and I shall be buying many more for the same purpose. The author knows his subject but he also knows where to stop, which is a rare skill. You learn plenty within these pages, and some of it is quirky and surprising: but it's not a lecture! It's a human, friendly, practical sort of book, and the stuff about how to set and light a fire is worth the price alone. There's also a good 'resources' section at the end with lots of websites and addresses of interest to smallholding / conservation / tree-loving types. Excellent value for money.

A real gem, 25 Apr 2008
This book is fascinating for any tree enthusiast.
It is the perfect tool you can use to identify different tree types.
The writing style is concise and in-depth.
A sheer masterpiece.
Picture quality is high definition. Images are portrayed in vivid detail.
This book is fantastic.
If you are even slightly interested in trees or want to expand your knowledge of trees buy this book.



A dream publication - Sheer quality, 10 Apr 2008
This publication just oozes quality from the high definition colour photography to the research and layout. I have several reference books relating to British trees and this one stands tall above all the others. The number of quality colour photographs is staggering.

If you are seeking a complete reference this book does exactly what it says on the cover, if I could have given it six stars I would have.

A good little book, but with it problems, read below!, 21 Apr 2008
this book is exactly what you would expect from a little Collin's gem, it has good material through out, and a pretty good selection of the most common trees....but, i would have preferred to see real photographs rather than artists drawings, which, sometimes are not as good a reference as an image of the real thing. Furthermore i would have liked to see bigger images of the type of bark from each tree since half the year the trees have no leaves, and the bark, leafless shape, and habitat is all you have to go on.
this is however a good introduction read for summer time tree hunting, wouldn't recommend it for winter though. if you are up for a better book i recommend:-
Collins Complete Guide to British Trees: A Photographic Guide to Every Common Species

great little book, 02 Apr 2008
this book is great for people who have just got into trees and want to find them and has some good facts

Recommended for tree spotting beginners, 22 Nov 2007
I lead tree courses and often recommend this little book for beginners. It has all the information and illustrations you need to get started, with, in my opinion, excellent pictures of leaves, flowers, fruit, winter twigs, bark and, best of all, the tree. Tree shapes in this book are truer than in many more ambitious works.

Compact, That is its Beauty, 13 Jul 2007

No, this is not the best book ever written about trees, but it is handy to have in your pocket. and on a walk or in the countryside you will not see many trees that are not in this book.

As one reviewer has already said the drawings could be better, but they are adequate for the casual 'tree spotter' The information given about each tree is also adequate. There are many more advanced books that can be purchased for the real tree enthusiast (if there is such a term) and these can be used at home after you have made an identification from the Collins gem.

Easy, simple and fun, 27 Jan 2007
Bought this book when we moved into a new house in '06. We now have five trees in our garden and plenty more in the surrounding area. Being an inquisitive sort of person I wanted to know what they were and decided on this little book from some reviews on Amazon. I was not dissapointed, really easy to use and in no time I had found out what I wanted. Clear and easy instructions and illustrations too. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

A wood that pays is a wood that stays, 30 Aug 2007
An excellent book for students and landowners, it starts with a brief history of woodland in Britain, followed by a chapter on tree biology and sylvicultural systems which is comprehensive and written in refreshingly plain english. The native and commonly used non-native trees are then detailed followed by how to draw up a management plan, essential if you want grant aid. Then the nitty-gritty of planting, protecting, measurement and marketing.

This is a very practical book on managing woodlands as a whole, very sensitive to their wildlife and landscape value but stressing that woodlands that pay are more likely to last.

A Starr read!, 29 Mar 2006
I found this book to be an insightful and stimulating guide to managing woodlands. The authour's writing style holds your attention and the information supplied is highly relevant and will be of value to a wide range of readers. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone with a keen interest in purchasing or managing woodlands in the future.

Good Introduction, 07 Jan 2006
This book is an excellent introduction to Forest Management. It starts from the beginning, with no assumption of prior knowledge.

Ideal for potential forestry students as well as those with an interest in woodland.

Another superb book from Archie!, 14 Jan 2008
This is an exceptional book, containing superb photographs beautifully reproduced. Archie Miles is a well-known photographer with a penchant for trees, with previous publications such as The Trees That Made Britain and Silva, and this latest offering continues in the same vein. His photographic work is technically faultless, combining an intimate knowledge and passion of the subject with superb, crisp, beautifully-lit pictures of the whole range of British trees shown nicely in their respective environments. Many of the locations have to remain secret, as they're on private land. But the other locations are listed in a comprehensive Gazetteer, which even tells you how easy it is to reach them on foot. I hate the term "Coffee Table Book", as it implies the book will sit there looking beautiful but mostly un-read. But be sure if you love trees and know the difference between mundane and exceptional photography, then this book will stay on your coffee table for years, and you'll struggle to put it down!

Root and Branch, 12 Oct 2008
I recall hearing Richard Mabey discussing this book on a radio show, before it was published and thinking its premise: collecting contibutors' personal experiences of British plant life, seemed rather uninspired. Surely this kind of thing has been done to death? Nature magazine columns have been filled for years with people writing accounts of things they have seen in the British countryside.

When it was published, I was further put off by the high price of the book.

I was completely wrong on both counts, the price, when the size, scope and quality of the book are considered, seems more than reasonable. As to the premise of the work, Richard Mabey, a genius writer in my opinion, pulls all the various accounts from amateur contributors together into a cohesive and coherent whole, that manages to maintain the same well mannered and good humoured tone throughout its long length.

It is possible to read the book piecemeal, picking out species that interest you specially , but I feel reading it from cover to cover best allows the reader to appreciate what the author has achieved.

This is not an identification guide, although the photographs are of top quality, and the amount of space devoted to each species varies wildly, but the "Flora" succeeds in its aim to be a folk history rather than purely a Natural History work.

Beware of books that may seem to continue this work, e.g."Fauna Britannica", which do not, in fact, have much in common with this fine volume.

mistitled but fun, 22 Sep 2007
It is true that this has to be one of the worse titled books of all time. A FLORA in any sense here should be an identification guide and it isn't that at all - it is a personal exploration of various plants concentrating not necessarily on the most important but on those for which the author has an affection for or simply information on. The main interests are folklore and distribution - industry and use and even literature get short shrift, oddly. It is true too that plant introductions are widely covered, but the distinction in terms of salience would be rather misleading (do we miss out horse-chstnut?...). The joy of this book which frankly does NOT look as though it was twenty years (flap) in the making is the writing and out of the way sources Mabey has dug up and in the feel of the book. A strange bestseller - but not to be dismissed.

Serious misdescription, 23 Aug 2007
Flora Britannica may be a fine book for what it is, as an essay or encyclopedia about British plants, but it is NOT what the title and description clearly imply - a comprehensive identification guide. I myself was misled by this, and indeed by the uncritical acceptance of this blatant misrepresentation by reviewers, and ordered a copy, only to find on opening it that it wasn't at all the comprehensive identification guide that I wanted - and so I'm returning it. A slapped wrist for the publisher, presumably the author, and for Amazon for not checking that the book contents match the meaning of the title and description of the work!

Publishers of nature books generally are being given far too much licence to misrepresent certain books in such a way - such as the Collins "Complete" guides, some of which cannot possibly be anything like complete.

Not for the serious horticulturist, 15 Oct 2004
I was thinking for some positives to write on this book and not much came to mind. It is a perfectly fine book. However the name flora brittanica indicates the plants in this book ought to be indiginous to this land but a great number of them are not. So the author spends time telling us about plants that have been brought over here in the last 100 - 200 years which is of no interest to anyone who is interested in FLORA BRITTANICA. Consequently what could have been a book containing a greater source of information on the fewer number of truly native species becomes a book with little information on a grater number of introduced species. Some of our native species aren't even worthy of a photograph where as japanese knotweed gets 2 photographs all because some idiot brought the wretched plant over here a few hundred years ago because he thought it was decorative. The explanation that goes with (most) the plants is largely centered around ancient beliefs about its uses. Which is o.k to the casual reader but doesn't really interest me. I would have liked to have seen which animals and wildlife benifited from each plant and more about the enviroment the plants naturally inhabit.

A good book overall, 04 Jun 2003
This is a very good encyclopedia, with a lot of information about the history and uses of the various plants found in Britain. My only criticism is that the pictures show the plants in their natural habitat rather than close up. This means it is sometimes difficult to identify the plant from the picture. After saying that, this book is not a hady field guide that you would carry round anyway. It being 400+ pages.
As a home fererence work, I can reccomend it, and I have spent ages browsing through it's pages discovering interesting things about the plants that are all arround us.

Paul

A fairly useful reference work for the casual reader, but..., 14 Sep 2006
This book is short (83 pages long in all) and is mostly taken up with an alphabetical listing of wood types with a short description and a list of what they have been and are used for. This list is exactly the same as the one on the website www.british-trees.com so check this out first to see if you think the book is worth buying.

There are also 6 (large text) pages on the author's woodland thoughts and 10 pages on making fires. I would have liked these two sections to have been longer as the author is obviously very knowledgable and has a lots of "wood experience" but only shares a small fraction of his knowledge.

There are a few small black and white pictures scattered throughout the book.

Fascinating, 29 May 2006
I've always been interested in trees and history so this book has been a real treat. I thought I knew quite a bit about the uses of wood but many of the possibilities described in this book have been fascinating and mind-boggling. The current uses which could be expanded in the future have been food for thought too and show just how important our natural resources are. The section on burning wood in the home was great - I've always been pretty good at building fires but I'm even better now - the one-match-fire really works - and not a firelighter in sight!

Tree mendous, 09 Apr 2006
What a pleasing little book. I was given mine as a present and I shall be buying many more for the same purpose. The author knows his subject but he also knows where to stop, which is a rare skill. You learn plenty within these pages, and some of it is quirky and surprising: but it's not a lecture! It's a human, friendly, practical sort of book, and the stuff about how to set and light a fire is worth the price alone. There's also a good 'resources' section at the end with lots of websites and addresses of interest to smallholding / conservation / tree-loving types. Excellent value for money.

The most inspiring gardening book I have read in a long time, 11 Mar 2007
and an excellent source of information, even if you are not particularly interested in planting a full scale forest garden. The sections on trees, bushes and perennial vegetables in particular in a mine of practical advice on how to grow these, and would be of interetest to anyone comtemplating growing anything from rohan or whitebeam to Good king henry, through a variety of fruit bushes.
Buy it for your nearest and dearest gardener at the first occasion :)

Medium Term Self Sufficiency Beckons . . ., 10 Jun 2005
For those with any amount of land who want it to be productive and efficient, here is a book that:

1. Addresses low energy living holistically (from houses to heating to food production)
2. Recommends approaches to growing food all year without overuse of machinery
3. Chooses crops and approaches that fit with human-powered activity
4. Sets you on the right path on nearly any issue of sustainable living

Excellent reading for those who wish to prepare for the day when the world will not be so comfortable.

Permaculture comes to town!, 22 Jul 2003
BUY THIS BOOK, Its full of details about plants we dont eat but should, its full of details you need to know about creating a garden of eden!

a readable guide to gardening with food-producing plants, 13 May 2002
This book is inspirational and practical. It shows how to create an ecosystem of food-producing plants, whether you have a large garden or a few yards of spare ground. The plants are arranged to replicate a woodland or forest environment, with the emphasis on low-maintainance and production of food (fruit, nuts, vegetables) throughout the year. The first chapter considers the environmental philosophy of this type of gardening. Subsequent chapters cover the plant types suitable for the UK, divided into categories of trees, shrubs and ground-layer plants. Each plant type is described in a very readable manner, with details such as basic growing requirements (soil, light, water), eventual size and yield. Although familiar plants such as rhubarb, raspberries, apples, plums are described, less common but equally viable varieties such as medlar and quince, even kiwis, are treated in equal detail.
Most of the emphasis is on the smaller trees which grow to about 3-4 m height. Larger trees such as chequer and walnut are described only briefly. The chapter on vegetables deals with perennial and self-seeding varieties, rather than the annuals of a typical vegetable plot. Particularly useful is a chart showing at what time of year each type of fruit can be harvested. More sketchy is how long it takes from planting the trees to when they start bearing fruit, however, for most varieties this would seem to be about 5 years. The last chapter deals with planning and gives an example of how a medium-sized garden could be adapted for this type of food production. The last few pages give details of nurseries that can supply the plants, so if you want a change from the shiny citrus fruits at the local supermarket, a garden of mulberry and medlar is only a phone call away.

Be aware - forest gardening may not be what you think, 09 Jan 2002
You may know what forest gardening really is but, silly me, I thought it meant creating a garden in an area with trees. It doesn't; it means something completely different which I think may be to do with permaculture.

I ordered the book for a friend who has moved into a house with a small wooded area at the bottom of his garden. He wants to do something with the spaces between the trees - clear the brambles and put suitable plants in between so that it will look beautiful and be practical. I know there are cultivated plants which thrive in those conditions and I hoped this book would pull all that info together for those in my friend's situation. Unfortunately the book does nothing of the sort, since it's about something else altogether.

Perhaps it's harsh to give it only 2 stars, since it may be a wonderful book if you want what it has to offer. But it was useless for the purpose I chose it for, and I'd guess I'm not the only one out there who may be confused by the book's name.

A real gem, 25 Apr 2008
This book is fascinating for any tree enthusiast.
It is the perfect tool you can use to identify different tree types.
The writing style is concise and in-depth.
A sheer masterpiece.
Picture quality is high definition. Images are portrayed in vivid detail.
This book is fantastic.
If you are even slightly interested in trees or want to expand your knowledge of trees buy this book.



A dream publication - Sheer quality, 10 Apr 2008
This publication just oozes quality from the high definition colour photography to the research and layout. I have several reference books relating to British trees and this one stands tall above all the others. The number of quality colour photographs is staggering.

If you are seeking a complete reference this book does exactly what it says on the cover, if I could have given it six stars I would have.

A good little book, but with it problems, read below!, 21 Apr 2008
this book is exactly what you would expect from a little Collin's gem, it has good material through out, and a pretty good selection of the most common trees....but, i would have preferred to see real photographs rather than artists drawings, which, sometimes are not as good a reference as an image of the real thing. Furthermore i would have liked to see bigger images of the type of bark from each tree since half the year the trees have no leaves, and the bark, leafless shape, and habitat is all you have to go on.
this is however a good introduction read for summer time tree hunting, wouldn't recommend it for winter though. if you are up for a better book i recommend:-
Collins Complete Guide to British Trees: A Photographic Guide to Every Common Species

great little book, 02 Apr 2008
this book is great for people who have just got into trees and want to find them and has some good facts

Recommended for tree spotting beginners, 22 Nov 2007
I lead tree courses and often recommend this little book for beginners. It has all the information and illustrations you need to get started, with, in my opinion, excellent pictures of leaves, flowers, fruit, winter twigs, bark and, best of all, the tree. Tree shapes in this book are truer than in many more ambitious works.

Compact, That is its Beauty, 13 Jul 2007

No, this is not the best book ever written about trees, but it is handy to have in your pocket. and on a walk or in the countryside you will not see many trees that are not in this book.

As one reviewer has already said the drawings could be better, but they are adequate for the casual 'tree spotter' The information given about each tree is also adequate. There are many more advanced books that can be purchased for the real tree enthusiast (if there is such a term) and these can be used at home after you have made an identification from the Collins gem.

Easy, simple and fun, 27 Jan 2007
Bought this book when we moved into a new house in '06. We now have five trees in our garden and plenty more in the surrounding area. Being an inquisitive sort of person I wanted to know what they were and decided on this little book from some reviews on Amazon. I was not dissapointed, really easy to use and in no time I had found out what I wanted. Clear and easy instructions and illustrations too. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

A wood that pays is a wood that stays, 30 Aug 2007
An excellent book for students and landowners, it starts with a brief history of woodland in Britain, followed by a chapter on tree biology and sylvicultural systems which is comprehensive and written in refreshingly plain english. The native and commonly used non-native trees are then detailed followed by how to draw up a management plan, essential if you want grant aid. Then the nitty-gritty of planting, protecting, measurement and marketing.

This is a very practical book on managing woodlands as a whole, very sensitive to their wildlife and landscape value but stressing that woodlands that pay are more likely to last.

A Starr read!, 29 Mar 2006
I found this book to be an insightful and stimulating guide to managing woodlands. The authour's writing style holds your attention and the information supplied is highly relevant and will be of value to a wide range of readers. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone with a keen interest in purchasing or managing woodlands in the future.

Good Introduction, 07 Jan 2006
This book is an excellent introduction to Forest Management. It starts from the beginning, with no assumption of prior knowledge.

Ideal for potential forestry students as well as those with an interest in woodland.

Another superb book from Archie!, 14 Jan 2008
This is an exceptional book, containing superb photographs beautifully reproduced. Archie Miles is a well-known photographer with a penchant for trees, with previous publications such as The Trees That Made Britain and Silva, and this latest offering continues in the same vein. His photographic work is technically faultless, combining an intimate knowledge and passion of the subject with superb, crisp, beautifully-lit pictures of the whole range of British trees shown nicely in their respective environments. Many of the locations have to remain secret, as they're on private land. But the other locations are listed in a comprehensive Gazetteer, which even tells you how easy it is to reach them on foot. I hate the term "Coffee Table Book", as it implies the book will sit there looking beautiful but mostly un-read. But be sure if you love trees and know the difference between mundane and exceptional photography, then this book will stay on your coffee table for years, and you'll struggle to put it down!

Root and Branch, 12 Oct 2008
I recall hearing Richard Mabey discussing this book on a radio show, before it was published and thinking its premise: collecting contibutors' personal experiences of British plant life, seemed rather uninspired. Surely this kind of thing has been done to death? Nature magazine columns have been filled for years with people writing accounts of things they have seen in the British countryside.

When it was published, I was further put off by the high price of the book.

I was completely wrong on both counts, the price, when the size, scope and quality of the book are considered, seems more than reasonable. As to the premise of the work, Richard Mabey, a genius writer in my opinion, pulls all the various accounts from amateur contributors together into a cohesive and coherent whole, that manages to maintain the same well mannered and good humoured tone throughout its long length.

It is possible to read the book piecemeal, picking out species that interest you specially , but I feel reading it from cover to cover best allows the reader to appreciate what the author has achieved.

This is not an identification guide, although the photographs are of top quality, and the amount of space devoted to each species varies wildly, but the "Flora" succeeds in its aim to be a folk history rather than purely a Natural History work.

Beware of books that may seem to continue this work, e.g."Fauna Britannica", which do not, in fact, have much in common with this fine volume.

mistitled but fun, 22 Sep 2007
It is true that this has to be one of the worse titled books of all time. A FLORA in any sense here should be an identification guide and it isn't that at all - it is a personal exploration of various plants concentrating not necessarily on the most important but on those for which the author has an affection for or simply information on. The main interests are folklore and distribution - industry and use and even literature get short shrift, oddly. It is true too that plant introductions are widely covered, but the distinction in terms of salience would be rather misleading (do we miss out horse-chstnut?...). The joy of this book which frankly does NOT look as though it was twenty years (flap) in the making is the writing and out of the way sources Mabey has dug up and in the feel of the book. A strange bestseller - but not to be dismissed.

Serious misdescription, 23 Aug 2007
Flora Britannica may be a fine book for what it is, as an essay or encyclopedia about British plants, but it is NOT what the title and description clearly imply - a comprehensive identification guide. I myself was misled by this, and indeed by the uncritical acceptance of this blatant misrepresentation by reviewers, and ordered a copy, only to find on opening it that it wasn't at all the comprehensive identification guide that I wanted - and so I'm returning it. A slapped wrist for the publisher, presumably the author, and for Amazon for not checking that the book contents match the meaning of the title and description of the work!

Publishers of nature books generally are being given far too much licence to misrepresent certain books in such a way - such as the Collins "Complete" guides, some of which cannot possibly be anything like complete.

Not for the serious horticulturist, 15 Oct 2004
I was thinking for some positives to write on this book and not much came to mind. It is a perfectly fine book. However the name flora brittanica indicates the plants in this book ought to be indiginous to this land but a great number of them are not. So the author spends time telling us about plants that have been brought over here in the last 100 - 200 years which is of no interest to anyone who is interested in FLORA BRITTANICA. Consequently what could have been a book containing a greater source of information on the fewer number of truly native species becomes a book with little information on a grater number of introduced species. Some of our native species aren't even worthy of a photograph where as japanese knotweed gets 2 photographs all because some idiot brought the wretched plant over here a few hundred years ago because he thought it was decorative. The explanation that goes with (most) the plants is largely centered around ancient beliefs about its uses. Which is o.k to the casual reader but doesn't really interest me. I would have liked to have seen which animals and wildlife benifited from each plant and more about the enviroment the plants naturally inhabit.

A good book overall, 04 Jun 2003
This is a very good encyclopedia, with a lot of information about the history and uses of the various plants found in Britain. My only criticism is that the pictures show the plants in their natural habitat rather than close up. This means it is sometimes difficult to identify the plant from the picture. After saying that, this book is not a hady field guide that you would carry round anyway. It being 400+ pages.
As a home fererence work, I can reccomend it, and I have spent ages browsing through it's pages discovering interesting things about the plants that are all arround us.

Paul

A fairly useful reference work for the casual reader, but..., 14 Sep 2006
This book is short (83 pages long in all) and is mostly taken up with an alphabetical listing of wood types with a short description and a list of what they have been and are used for. This list is exactly the same as the one on the website www.british-trees.com so check this out first to see if you think the book is worth buying.

There are also 6 (large text) pages on the author's woodland thoughts and 10 pages on making fires. I would have liked these two sections to have been longer as the author is obviously very knowledgable and has a lots of "wood experience" but only shares a small fraction of his knowledge.

There are a few small black and white pictures scattered throughout the book.

Fascinating, 29 May 2006
I've always been interested in trees and history so this book has been a real treat. I thought I knew quite a bit about the uses of wood but many of the possibilities described in this book have been fascinating and mind-boggling. The current uses which could be expanded in the future have been food for thought too and show just how important our natural resources are. The section on burning wood in the home was great - I've always been pretty good at building fires but I'm even better now - the one-match-fire really works - and not a firelighter in sight!

Tree mendous, 09 Apr 2006
What a pleasing little book. I was given mine as a present and I shall be buying many more for the same purpose. The author knows his subject but he also knows where to stop, which is a rare skill. You learn plenty within these pages, and some of it is quirky and surprising: but it's not a lecture! It's a human, friendly, practical sort of book, and the stuff about how to set and light a fire is worth the price alone. There's also a good 'resources' section at the end with lots of websites and addresses of interest to smallholding / conservation / tree-loving types. Excellent value for money.

The most inspiring gardening book I have read in a long time, 11 Mar 2007
and an excellent source of information, even if you are not particularly interested in planting a full scale forest garden. The sections on trees, bushes and perennial vegetables in particular in a mine of practical advice on how to grow these, and would be of interetest to anyone comtemplating growing anything from rohan or whitebeam to Good king henry, through a variety of fruit bushes.
Buy it for your nearest and dearest gardener at the first occasion :)

Medium Term Self Sufficiency Beckons . . ., 10 Jun 2005
For those with any amount of land who want it to be productive and efficient, here is a book that:

1. Addresses low energy living holistically (from houses to heating to food production)
2. Recommends approaches to growing food all year without overuse of machinery
3. Chooses crops and approaches that fit with human-powered activity
4. Sets you on the right path on nearly any issue of sustainable living

Excellent reading for those who wish to prepare for the day when the world will not be so comfortable.

Permaculture comes to town!, 22 Jul 2003
BUY THIS BOOK, Its full of details about plants we dont eat but should, its full of details you need to know about creating a garden of eden!

a readable guide to gardening with food-producing plants, 13 May 2002
This book is inspirational and practical. It shows how to create an ecosystem of food-producing plants, whether you have a large garden or a few yards of spare ground. The plants are arranged to replicate a woodland or forest environment, with the emphasis on low-maintainance and production of food (fruit, nuts, vegetables) throughout the year. The first chapter considers the environmental philosophy of this type of gardening. Subsequent chapters cover the plant types suitable for the UK, divided into categories of trees, shrubs and ground-layer plants. Each plant type is described in a very readable manner, with details such as basic growing requirements (soil, light, water), eventual size and yield. Although familiar plants such as rhubarb, raspberries, apples, plums are described, less common but equally viable varieties such as medlar and quince, even kiwis, are treated in equal detail.
Most of the emphasis is on the smaller trees which grow to about 3-4 m height. Larger trees such as chequer and walnut are described only briefly. The chapter on vegetables deals with perennial and self-seeding varieties, rather than the annuals of a typical vegetable plot. Particularly useful is a chart showing at what time of year each type of fruit can be harvested. More sketchy is how long it takes from planting the trees to when they start bearing fruit, however, for most varieties this would seem to be about 5 years. The last chapter deals with planning and gives an example of how a medium-sized garden could be adapted for this type of food production. The last few pages give details of nurseries that can supply the plants, so if you want a change from the shiny citrus fruits at the local supermarket, a garden of mulberry and medlar is only a phone call away.

Be aware - forest gardening may not be what you think, 09 Jan 2002
You may know what forest gardening really is but, silly me, I thought it meant creating a garden in an area with trees. It doesn't; it means something completely different which I think may be to do with permaculture.

I ordered the book for a friend who has moved into a house with a small wooded area at the bottom of his garden. He wants to do something with the spaces between the trees - clear the brambles and put suitable plants in between so that it will look beautiful and be practical. I know there are cultivated plants which thrive in those conditions and I hoped this book would pull all that info together for those in my friend's situation. Unfortunately the book does nothing of the sort, since it's about something else altogether.

Perhaps it's harsh to give it only 2 stars, since it may be a wonderful book if you want what it has to offer. But it was useless for the purpose I chose it for, and I'd guess I'm not the only one out there who may be confused by the book's name.

Excellent Design Ideas Combined with Plant Profiles and Photographs: Check with Your Nursery for Local Versions That Winter Well, 01 Aug 2007
If you live in Somerset, England, this book will be an irreplaceable guide to improving your woodland . . . or creating one from scratch. Ms. Junker is from Somerset, and her perspective is heavily dependent on those growing conditions. If you live someplace that's much colder, you'll need to check on the plants that interest you to see if they survive the winters in your area. To help with that, Ms. Junker provides a list of places where you can see woodland plants in the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as nurseries that have display gardens to demonstrate woodland plant concepts. The gardens and nurseries may not be right next door, but I'm sure you'll enjoy the trip.

The book opens with Ms. Junker's concepts for a woodland garden, taking it from the perspective of not having a tree canopy through to already having one. She favors thinking of your woodland garden in three layers: the canopy of tall trees, intermediate plants (like rhododendrons), and flowering plants that will do well on the woodland floor (especially bulbs and ferns). She talks helpfully about how to deal with spaces of all sizes and degrees of being wooded.

I found the book very helpful since our property is heavily wooded with many intermediate layer flowering plants. But we haven't done much with the ground layer, so the book's ideas were intriguing to me. In addition, she drew my attention to ornamental tall and intermediate trees and plants that could provide some interesting variety in our woodland.

To me, the photographs helped the most. I could identify flowering plants by name that I've seen do well in our area. Combined with her information, I have the basis for many interesting experiments.

The book's main drawback is that plant directory (the bulk of the book) is not as fully illustrated as I would have liked. I suspect that the solution is to look up the formal botanical names on the Internet to find photographs that illustrate what's being described.

Ms. Junker has obviously forgotten more about woodland gardens than I'll ever know. It's great to be able to draw on her experience and ideas.

Nice work, Ms. Junker!

A useful book, 25 Jun 2007
A great book. Very practical with lots of helpful ideas. One of the best gardening books I have, and I have lots!

A real gem, 25 Apr 2008
This book is fascinating for any tree enthusiast.
It is the perfect tool you can use to identify different tree types.
The writing style is concise and in-depth.
A sheer masterpiece.
Picture quality is high definition. Images are portrayed in vivid detail.
This book is fantastic.
If you are even slightly interested in trees or want to expand your knowledge of trees buy this book.



A dream publication - Sheer quality, 10 Apr 2008
This publication just oozes quality from the high definition colour photography to the research and layout. I have several reference books relating to British trees and this one stands tall above all the others. The number of quality colour photographs is staggering.

If you are seeking a complete reference this book does exactly what it says on the cover, if I could have given it six stars I would have.

A good little book, but with it problems, read below!, 21 Apr 2008
this book is exactly what you would expect from a little Collin's gem, it has good material through out, and a pretty good selection of the most common trees....but, i would have preferred to see real photographs rather than artists drawings, which, sometimes are not as good a reference as an image of the real thing. Furthermore i would have liked to see bigger images of the type of bark from each tree since half the year the trees have no leaves, and the bark, leafless shape, and habitat is all you have to go on.
this is however a good introduction read for summer time tree hunting, wouldn't recommend it for winter though. if you are up for a better book i recommend:-
Collins Complete Guide to British Trees: A Photographic Guide to Every Common Species

great little book, 02 Apr 2008
this book is great for people who have just got into trees and want to find them and has some good facts

Recommended for tree spotting beginners, 22 Nov 2007
I lead tree courses and often recommend this little book for beginners. It has all the information and illustrations you need to get started, with, in my opinion, excellent pictures of leaves, flowers, fruit, winter twigs, bark and, best of all, the tree. Tree shapes in this book are truer than in many more ambitious works.

Compact, That is its Beauty, 13 Jul 2007

No, this is not the best book ever written about trees, but it is handy to have in your pocket. and on a walk or in the countryside you will not see many trees that are not in this book.

As one reviewer has already said the drawings could be better, but they are adequate for the casual 'tree spotter' The information given about each tree is also adequate. There are many more advanced books that can be purchased for the real tree enthusiast (if there is such a term) and these can be used at home after you have made an identification from the Collins gem.

Easy, simple and fun, 27 Jan 2007
Bought this book when we moved into a new house in '06. We now have five trees in our garden and plenty more in the surrounding area. Being an inquisitive sort of person I wanted to know what they were and decided on this little book from some reviews on Amazon. I was not dissapointed, really easy to use and in no time I had found out what I wanted. Clear and easy instructions and illustrations too. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

A wood that pays is a wood that stays, 30 Aug 2007
An excellent book for students and landowners, it starts with a brief history of woodland in Britain, followed by a chapter on tree biology and sylvicultural systems which is comprehensive and written in refreshingly plain english. The native and commonly used non-native trees are then detailed followed by how to draw up a management plan, essential if you want grant aid. Then the nitty-gritty of planting, protecting, measurement and marketing.

This is a very practical book on managing woodlands as a whole, very sensitive to their wildlife and landscape value but stressing that woodlands that pay are more likely to last.

A Starr read!, 29 Mar 2006
I found this book to be an insightful and stimulating guide to managing woodlands. The authour's writing style holds your attention and the information supplied is highly relevant and will be of value to a wide range of readers. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone with a keen interest in purchasing or managing woodlands in the future.

Good Introduction, 07 Jan 2006
This book is an excellent introduction to Forest Management. It starts from the beginning, with no assumption of prior knowledge.

Ideal for potential forestry students as well as those with an interest in woodland.

Another superb book from Archie!, 14 Jan 2008
This is an exceptional book, containing superb photographs beautifully reproduced. Archie Miles is a well-known photographer with a penchant for trees, with previous publications such as The Trees That Made Britain and Silva, and this latest offering continues in the same vein. His photographic work is technically faultless, combining an intimate knowledge and passion of the subject with superb, crisp, beautifully-lit pictures of the whole range of British trees shown nicely in their respective environments. Many of the locations have to remain secret, as they're on private land. But the other locations are listed in a comprehensive Gazetteer, which even tells you how easy it is to reach them on foot. I hate the term "Coffee Table Book", as it implies the book will sit there looking beautiful but mostly un-read. But be sure if you love trees and know the difference between mundane and exceptional photography, then this book will stay on your coffee table for years, and you'll struggle to put it down!

Root and Branch, 12 Oct 2008
I recall hearing Richard Mabey discussing this book on a radio show, before it was published and thinking its premise: collecting contibutors' personal experiences of British plant life, seemed rather uninspired. Surely this kind of thing has been done to death? Nature magazine columns have been filled for years with people writing accounts of things they have seen in the British countryside.

When it was published, I was further put off by the high price of the book.

I was completely wrong on both counts, the price, when the size, scope and quality of the book are considered, seems more than reasonable. As to the premise of the work, Richard Mabey, a genius writer in my opinion, pulls all the various accounts from amateur contributors together into a cohesive and coherent whole, that manages to maintain the same well mannered and good humoured tone throughout its long length.

It is possible to read the book piecemeal, picking out species that interest you specially , but I feel reading it from cover to cover best allows the reader to appreciate what the author has achieved.

This is not an identification guide, although the photographs are of top quality, and the amount of space devoted to each species varies wildly, but the "Flora" succeeds in its aim to be a folk history rather than purely a Natural History work.

Beware of books that may seem to continue this work, e.g."Fauna Britannica", which do not, in fact, have much in common with this fine volume.

mistitled but fun, 22 Sep 2007
It is true that this has to be one of the worse titled books of all time. A FLORA in any sense here should be an identification guide and it isn't that at all - it is a personal exploration of various plants concentrating not necessarily on the most important but on those for which the author has an affection for or simply information on. The main interests are folklore and distribution - industry and use and even literature get short shrift, oddly. It is true too that plant introductions are widely covered, but the distinction in terms of salience would be rather misleading (do we miss out horse-chstnut?...). The joy of this book which frankly does NOT look as though it was twenty years (flap) in the making is the writing and out of the way sources Mabey has dug up and in the feel of the book. A strange bestseller - but not to be dismissed.

Serious misdescription, 23 Aug 2007
Flora Britannica may be a fine book for what it is, as an essay or encyclopedia about British plants, but it is NOT what the title and description clearly imply - a comprehensive identification guide. I myself was misled by this, and indeed by the uncritical acceptance of this blatant misrepresentation by reviewers, and ordered a copy, only to find on opening it that it wasn't at all the comprehensive identification guide that I wanted - and so I'm returning it. A slapped wrist for the publisher, presumably the author, and for Amazon for not checking that the book contents match the meaning of the title and description of the work!

Publishers of nature books generally are being given far too much licence to misrepresent certain books in such a way - such as the Collins "Complete" guides, some of which cannot possibly be anything like complete.

Not for the serious horticulturist, 15 Oct 2004
I was thinking for some positives to write on this book and not much came to mind. It is a perfectly fine book. However the name flora brittanica indicates the plants in this book ought to be indiginous to this land but a great number of them are not. So the author spends time telling us about plants that have been brought over here in the last 100 - 200 years which is of no interest to anyone who is interested in FLORA BRITTANICA. Consequently what could have been a book containing a greater source of information on the fewer number of truly native species becomes a book with little information on a grater number of introduced species. Some of our native species aren't even worthy of a photograph where as japanese knotweed gets 2 photographs all because some idiot brought the wretched plant over here a few hundred years ago because he thought it was decorative. The explanation that goes with (most) the plants is largely centered around ancient beliefs about its uses. Which is o.k to the casual reader but doesn't really interest me. I would have liked to have seen which animals and wildlife benifited from each plant and more about the enviroment the plants naturally inhabit.

A good book overall, 04 Jun 2003
This is a very good encyclopedia, with a lot of information about the history and uses of the various plants found in Britain. My only criticism is that the pictures show the plants in their natural habitat rather than close up. This means it is sometimes difficult to identify the plant from the picture. After saying that, this book is not a hady field guide that you would carry round anyway. It being 400+ pages.
As a home fererence work, I can reccomend it, and I have spent ages browsing through it's pages discovering interesting things about the plants that are all arround us.

Paul

A fairly useful reference work for the casual reader, but..., 14 Sep 2006
This book is short (83 pages long in all) and is mostly taken up with an alphabetical listing of wood types with a short description and a list of what they have been and are used for. This list is exactly the same as the one on the website www.british-trees.com so check this out first to see if you think the book is worth buying.

There are also 6 (large text) pages on the author's woodland thoughts and 10 pages on making fires. I would have liked these two sections to have been longer as the author is obviously very knowledgable and has a lots of "wood experience" but only shares a small fraction of his knowledge.

There are a few small black and white pictures scattered throughout the book.

Fascinating, 29 May 2006
I've always been interested in trees and history so this book has been a real treat. I thought I knew quite a bit about the uses of wood but many of the possibilities described in this book have been fascinating and mind-boggling. The current uses which could be expanded in the future have been food for thought too and show just how important our natural resources are. The section on burning wood in the home was great - I've always been pretty good at building fires but I'm even better now - the one-match-fire really works - and not a firelighter in sight!

Tree mendous, 09 Apr 2006
What a pleasing little book. I was given mine as a present and I shall be buying many more for the same purpose. The author knows his subject but he also knows where to stop, which is a rare skill. You learn plenty within these pages, and some of it is quirky and surprising: but it's not a lecture! It's a human, friendly, practical sort of book, and the stuff about how to set and light a fire is worth the price alone. There's also a good 'resources' section at the end with lots of websites and addresses of interest to smallholding / conservation / tree-loving types. Excellent value for money.

The most inspiring gardening book I have read in a long time, 11 Mar 2007
and an excellent source of information, even if you are not particularly interested in planting a full scale forest garden. The sections on trees, bushes and perennial vegetables in particular in a mine of practical advice on how to grow these, and would be of interetest to anyone comtemplating growing anythin