The Glorious Life of the Oak cover art

The Glorious Life of the Oak

Preview
Try Premium Plus free
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Glorious Life of the Oak

By: John Lewis-Stempel
Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
Try Premium Plus free

Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $12.99

Buy Now for $12.99

About this listen

Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Glorious Life of the Oak by John Lewis-Stempel, read by Leighton Pugh.

'The oak is the wooden tie between heaven and earth. It is the lynch pin of the British landscape.'

The oak is our most beloved and most common tree. It has roots that stretch back to all the old European cultures but Britain has more ancient oaks than all the other European countries put together. More than half the ancient oaks in the world are in Britain.

Many of our ancestors - the Angles, the Saxons, the Norse - came to the British Isles in longships made of oak. For centuries the oak touched every part of a Briton's life - from cradle to coffin It was oak that made the 'wooden walls' of Nelson's navy, and the navy that allowed Britain to rule the world. Even in the digital Apple age, the real oak has resonance - the word speaks of fortitude, antiquity, pastoralism.

The Glorious Life of the Oak explores our long relationship with this iconic tree; it considers the life-cycle of the oak, the flora and fauna that depend on the oak, the oak as medicine, food and drink, where Britain's mightiest oaks can be found, and it tells of oak stories from folklore, myth and legend.

©2018 John Lewis-Stempel (P)2018 Random House Audiobooks
Ecosystems & Habitats Environment Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science Conservation Natural History

Critic Reviews

A beautiful object and a very British story written with real lyricism - some of the finest sentences I've read. (Neil Oliver)
No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.