Epitaph for the Ash: In Search of Recovery and Renewal Paperback – Import, 21 March 2019

I loved this beautifully written book with its poetry and vivid colourful descriptions.Lisa persevered with her writing with bravery and stoicism through her illness and recovery. She makes us grateful that we are able to wander freely through beautiful woods, exploring and appreciating their age and splendour. We are made aware of their history and connections to us as human beings throughout the centuries.Her personal observations and comments are refreshingly touching as she struggles to conquer both her fears and physical limitations whilst doing her research. Not daunted by venturing into seldom traversed ancient woodlands, she links her own history with that of her uncle who had previously written about the loss of the elm.A touching, informative, easy to read book about a serious subject with dark real-life undertones which leave you reaching into yourself in rediscovery of the familiar and what you take for granted.

Given as a present.

A beautiful and descriptive read. I found myself savouring this book, reading a little a a time to make it last. I loved the clever way Lisa wove together and offer mirrored her illness and start of her recovery with the subject of the book. Ash dieback hit the headlines for a while and then went quiet. Lisa reminds us of the impact of this disease on the landscape and woodlands we take for granted and to treasure what we have.

More about the author than about trees or tree disease.Her refusal to use the correct term for die back, Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, and instead using the outdated incorrect term chalara fraxinea, is annoying at best, as well as factually incorrect.Also her references to norse mythology woefully incorrect.May be I'm being unfair, but I expected a book on ash trees and Ash dieback and tree lore, instead it's a book about the author loosely hung around the subject. And what detail on trees and lore there is uses out of date nomenclature and incorrect assertions on mythology

This could be a dry and inaccessible subject. I found the book interesting and well written and most importantly it made me more observant of our landscape and heritage and how devastating this disease is. We should all be doing as much as possible to conserve what's left of our natural world.