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Elderflora review: A history of ancient trees is excellent in parts

A tour round the world's oldest trees is a brilliant idea for a book, but its delivery can be pretty uneven

By Graham Lawton

22 February 2023

INYO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 28: A 4,853-year-old Great Basin bristlecone pine tree known as Methuselah is growing high at Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains of Inyo County in eastern California, United States on November 28, 2021. It is also recognized as the non-clonal tree with the greatest confirmed age in the world. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

This Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) in Nevada is more than 4000 years old

tayfun coskun/anadolu agency/getty images

Elderflora: A modern history of ancient trees
Jared Farmer (Picador)

WHEN the Hardy Tree in the graveyard of St Pancras Old Church finally fell in December last year, London lost a unique and much-loved landmark. This ash tree was surrounded by upstanding headstones that had been moved there in the 1860s to accommodate a new railway line. Legend has it that the arrangement was created by a young Thomas Hardy while he was working as …

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