The Lonely Tree

Published in association with The Tree Council and The Child Bereavement Trust, this book attempts to deal with the universal themes of death, life, birth, renewal through the story of an old and dying oak tree and his neighbour in the New Forest, a young evergreen sapling. The youngster hears the old stories of the forest from his venerable neighbour. As summer slips into autumn and duly to winter, the deciduous oaks shed their leaves but reassure the young sapling that they are only sleeping, that they will awake renewed and fresh in the spring. As the warmth of spring arrives, the new foliage of the oaks cloaks the forest as promised, but the oldest tree fails to waken.

A difficult subject is handled sensitively, with the ongoing distraction of a ‘spot the woodland creatures’ game running through the visual narrative. The fiercely digital photo-manipulated illustrations do though seem somewhat at odds with the organic nature of the theme.