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The story of a city landscape told through its trees, both past and present. When Bob Gilbert moved to London's East End, he began to record the natural world of his new inner city patch. Especially the trees: their history, their stories, the trees' relationship with people. Bob takes a personal journey of exploration through the generations of trees that have helped shape the London district of Poplar, from the original wildwood through to the street trees of today. Drawing from history and natural history, poetry and painting, myth and magic, he reveals the hidden influences that lost landscapes – the 'ghost trees' – have had on the shape of the city today. Beautifully written, passionate, and flecked with 'acts of defiance' against the brutalities of capitalism and urban planning, Ghost Trees captures the very spirit of one unique city community.
Bob Gilbert is the author of The Green London Way (Lawrence & Wishart, 2012) and has written a column for Ham & High on urban wildlife for the last twenty years. A regular contributor to TV and radio, including Natural World and BBC Radio 4's The Food Programme, Bob has also been a stand-up comedian, a long-standing campaigner for inner city conservation and chair of `The Garden Classroom', a charity that promotes environmental education in London.
"Profoundly uplifting: Gilbert's keen eye reveals the wealth of wild and weird species that cling on against the odds in a global city, and enrich its residents' lives in unheralded ways."
– Guardian
"Fascinating."
– Joe Shute, Sunday Telegraph
"Full of deep truths and improbable marvels, this beautifully observed book is a joyous hymn to the urban wild and a clarion call for better greener, wilder cities."
– Patrick Barkham, natural history writer
"One of the best non-fiction books about London. Bob Gilbert's gifted style of writing [and] simple, clear but hilarious storytelling helps to make this secret life of trees an unlikely page-turner."
– The Londonist
"Lyrical and beautifully evocative ..in a language as rich and lilting as the contours of the estuarine land [...] A delight."
– Richard Jones, BBC Countryfile magazine
"Its tone warm and its content wide-ranging, Ghost Trees spans history and social history, folklore, religion and walking as well as nature but Gilbert wears his vast knowledge lightly and shares it engagingly and entertainingly."
– Clare Wadd, Caught by the River
"Warm, rich and fascinating [...] [Gilbert] is a generous guide, with a deep knowledge of plant life and a fine turn of phrase."
– Jon Day, Guardian
"Ghost Trees is a reflective book, about personal reaction and engagement. Reading it is like spending time with a knowledgeable uncle who is keen to share his enthusiasms."
– Jeremy Crump, Living Maps
"Absorbing."
– The Bookseller
"[...] This is the book for those that enjoy a mashed-potato mix of learned natural history, historical anecdotes and dry humour. [...] It’s a cliché to describe a great book published in time for December as the ideal stocking-fller, but the recipient of Ghost Trees may well feel a desire to tramp their own streets, like Gilbert, and observe trees for themselves. So the book will truly end up being, in a different way, a ‘stocking filler’."
– Angus Hanton, Living Woods Magazine 50, Winter 2018
