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Beech Blurt

Formats: Paperback

Ages: 18+

An 80 page volume, printed on high quality card and paper, thread-bound, illustrated with colour photography by the author; entirely designed, produced and published by him. The book is a second, revised edition, published in 2025. It consists of a collection of poems observing and describing scenes of or involving trees, woods and forests predominantly of beech. An autobiographical preface explains the formative experience of a childhood in a Sussex forest village home surrounded by woodland dominated by beech trees, making an impression of intensity and intimacy leading to an enduring fascination and life-long passion for the species. The romantic and enthusiastic elements are counterbalanced in the poetry by moments and passages of context, objectivity, comedy and self-questioning. Moreover, many other types of tree and wildlife make appearances along the way, and plenty of the beeches featured are found in urban settings. The geographical area involved encompasses the majority of English counties, a few locations elsewhere in Britain and Ireland, and some in Western Europe. Composed in generally lucid and conventional language, the poetic structures and forms range from classical scan and rhyme to free verse; the phraseology can be quirky and the tone shifts among contrasting approaches and moods.