Marlborough LitFest’s decision to run events on Friday for the first time is clearly a popular choice if the sell-out crowd for Tristan Gooley’s talk on How to Read a Tree is anything to go by.
Tristan came to talk about his seventh book, “How to Read a Tree”, taking us through his travels from Borneo to Canada and London to the Caribbean sharing pictures of the vastly different landscapes that taught him how trees behave.
He shared the clues that the trees display that can help you navigate if you are lost, tell you what animals live nearby, and tell you they have experienced trauma. I’m not going to impart any of these clues here as you need to buy the book to find out!
He explained what the tree’s effect on their immediate surroundings means and what each leaf pattern says about the local environment. And, in my favourite fact, he explained why they sometimes have “fairy houses” (a term from my childhood that I was delighted to hear again!).
New words were learnt. Thigmomorphogenesis and Allelopathy. And challenges were made to ever use those words again.
He even tested the audience and, with a unanimous correct answer from the crowd, proved that we had all learnt something.
A genuinely fascinating topic from a brilliantly engaging speaker which I look forward to putting to the test on my countryside walks.
Alex Martin
Marlborough LitFest Love Books Competition winners announced
