Two years with an ancient oak tree

James Canton talks with Kathryn Ryan about the two years he spent visiting and studying an 800 year old oak tree in Essex.

The Honywood Oak in Coggeshall was a sapling when the Magna Carta was signed in 1215, and once stood among a forest of 300. It is the lone survivor in that field today.

James Canton’s book The Oak Papers is a meditation on the life of the tree, the wider natural world and humans’ connection with them. He says humans have had a close association with oak trees since pre-history.

Two years with an ancient oak tree
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