Gabriel Hemery's Blog: Gabriel Hemery, page 12

Into the Woods with Temple Spa

Here are some more images from my photographic collaboration with luxury skincare brand Temple Spa.

I explained more about my commercial photography contract in a recent blog post. You can see the whole Into the Woods collection on the Temple Spa website.

I hope you enjoy looking through some of the range below.

The collection Into the Woods features a wide range of luxury products including bath luxe, body polish, radiance creme, moisturiser, lip balm, shampoo, conditioner, massage oil, and more!

Into the Woods

Over the last year I’ve been collaborating with luxury skincare brand Temple Spa which commissioned me to take a series of photographs for its new seasonal collection.

[image error] The Temple Spa 2020 collection: Into the Woods. Image © Temple Spa.

My brief was to explore the beauty of trees close up, focussing on colours and textures of trees which would work well both for the packaging and in the promotion of the company’s new range.

The images used include the bark of snow gum (Eucalyptus pauciflora) and London plane (Platanus × acerifolia).

It’s been a great collaboration, and the company has produced a visual feast of products graced with my tree images.

You can see the collection on the Temple Spa website, or watch the short video below.

Disclaimer: I do not receive any income from clicks on this page and this is not a personal endorsement of any products by the company Temple Spa. The tree photographs of Gabriel Hemery were commissioned by Temple Spa and made available under a commercial use licence. Read more about photography by Gabriel Hemery

Book Review

I’m very grateful to Living Woods Magazine and to Matt Larsen-Daw for a generous review of Tall Trees Short Stories in their Autumn 2020 issue.

‘overflowing with literary invention, scientific detail and philosophy’

Living Woods Magazine, Autumn 2020

[image error] An extract from the book review of Tall Trees Short Stories from Living Woods Magazine, Autumn 2020 (click to view whole issue for free)

‘This is nature writing for those who understand that nature isn’t a place you visit for a spell and then return from to tell your friends.’

Living Woods Magazine, Autumn 2020

Tall Trees Short Stories is available from all good bookshops in paperback, and as an ebook (Kindle and others), and as an audiobook from Audible. Signed copies also available direct from the author – visit my shop.

Audiobook of Tall Trees Short Stories

I’m excited to reveal that the audiobook of Tall Trees Short Stories Vol20 is now available to purchase and enjoy without even opening your eyes.

It’s been a privilege working with voice artist Claudia Bay who has produced a fantastic audio version of the book. She admitted it was one of the most most challenging books she’d undertaken because of its wide array of genres and different voices. Her favourite story was The Man Who Harvested Trees ; what’s yours?

Here’s a five minute sample:

Purchase today via Audible or get for free with a 30-day trial:

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Includes two free audiobooks.Keep your audiobooks even if you cancel.Don’t like your audiobook? Swap it for any reason.Risk free. Cancel anytime.Listen online or offline.Audible is £7.99/mth after 30 days. Renews automatically.




[image error] Tall Trees Short Stories Vol20 audiobook

The Forest Book

I am excited to launch news of my next work of non-fiction which will be a guide to every one of Britain’s forests, woods and copses. Currently no one knows how many named wooded areas there are in Britain, let alone all their histories, designations, public access, or unique wildlife and other features.

I am under no illusions how much work this will entail, which is why I am turning to my readers to ask for their help. I am asking members of the public to propose entries into the guide, and for woodland owners or their representatives to enter information directly.

I’ve created a simple form which you can find below. Please help me by completing the form and by circulating this page with any of your friends (you can use the following short link for the form: http://gabhem.com/forest-entry

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Quercus – a novellete

Regular readers will know that I have committed to writing and sharing with them a free short story every month for 12 months. I can’t believe that I’m already three-quarters towards my target. This month I’m giving away a new story called Quercus. At some 9,000 words in length, it is technically more of a novellete, being in-between a short story and a novella.

To get your free copy, sign up today to my newsletter. Find out more

[image error] Quercus – a novellete by Gabriel Hemery.
Thanks to Brian of Hand-cut Signs for the beautiful lettering in oak used in the book cover.



[image error] Progress towards my target of a short story every month for a year

Tall Trees Short Stories is out

After many months of hard work and a bumpy ride through a global virus pandemic, it’s a relief to see my next book published. It is always a daunting privilege to read reviews from readers for the first time but the book seems to be going down quite well.

Writing fiction is a curious art. The writer spends months if not years working away in complete isolation before sharing it first with a select few people, including early draft reviewers, copy editor and so on. It is not until the book reaches the hands of the reader that s/he has any idea how the book will be perceived. It is a very personal thing because fiction inevitably involves the writer sharing their innermost thoughts and feelings, even if embroiled in fantasy and tossed in make-believe. It’s an experience perhaps best described as baring your soul to strangers.

I’m very grateful to early reviewers for taking the time to read the book and provide some reader perspectives. Here are a small selection of book reviews:

What I love about this collection is how wide ranging the stories are, incorporating trees in so many different ways, reflecting the myriad of different ways in which real trees impact and affect our real lives. It’s an enjoyable and thought provoking read.

Juliet Wilson, Goodreads

Rating: 5 out of 5.

I recommend this book: those who love trees will see them in several new lights; those who like stories will find a rich array of narratives.

Robin Walter, Goodreads

Rating: 5 out of 5.

This is a captivating, moving and thought-provoking collection that will appeal to readers of all ages and genres from fairy tale to science fiction. Using a range of devices including satire, allegory, poetry and time travel, Hemery creates a crescendo of voices to impress upon the reader that ‘Without trees, there is no future.’ Be prepared to be taken on a journey through time, to inhabit the minds of other species, and to acquire a greater appreciation of our woodlands, and why they should be cherished. After all, “Nature is more than miraculous, it’s – it’s the most beautiful, frighteningly intelligent solution to our self-inflicted peril.”

Tasha Simmons, Goodreads

Rating: 5 out of 5.

A wonderful book that explores the natural world, the cycle of life and our relationship with trees and wildlife. I loved the medley of genres – old gods (Gaia, goddess of Earth, is woven throughout), mixed with sci-fi aliens and future technology (bionic trees that move 250m a year). There’s an engaging variety of styles – letters, shanties, poems, parables, the echoes of fairy tales and more. There are strong lead roles for females as well as males – hurrah for this! We see inside the minds of birds and even thorns come to life. But most of all this book challenges us to rethink our behaviour and to ‘love the wood for the trees and the trees for their wood’. If you enjoy birds and forests and well-written, thoughtful tales, then this is for you.

The Tree Council, Amazon

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Coming to this book of stories with a theme of trees and forests I was looking forward to reading and reviewing. But I encountered a problem. The Tall Trees Short Stories tales were so enthralling that my pen and notebook were left untouched. Instead I wandered through sylvan trails wondering where I would I next find myself.

Marie Shallcross, book blogger

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Tall Trees Short Stories: Volume 20 was published today and is now available in all good bookshops and all major online platforms. It is currently available in paperback and ebook formats, with an audiobook due for release next month.
If you are interested in purchasing a signed paperback, I offer that option via my shop – read more

What A Hoot

My next book, a collection of environment tales, is published next week. Tall Trees Short Stories is available to preorder online and from all good bookshops.

What a hoot!

I hope you enjoy this short trailer for Tall Trees Short Stories with a surprise cameo from a creature of the night.

Now available to order from all good book sellers, and from my Shop.

Also available online from Hive (supporting local bookshops).

Watch more films featuring Tall Trees Short Stories

Collective Nouns for Trees

When is a forest not a Forest, and a wood not a copse but a spinney? I’ve put together a list of collective nouns for trees from the English language from arboretum to woodland. Perhaps some will be new to you; maybe I’ve missed one that you know.

[image error]A clump of trees on the top of a hill, and a hedge near the valley bottom with small standards, lit by the winter solstice sun. Photo Gabriel Hemery.



collective noundescriptionarboretum (plural arboreta)botanical collection of trees, often supporting public education and science activities, including genetic conservation. See list of UK arboretaavenuerow of trees, often a double row, marking an approach to a feature or lining the sides of a road. e.g. lime avenuebushwooded area but usually not densely populated with treescantblock within a woodland (usually 2-5 acres) often used to described an area under coppice management, with the number of cants equal to the rotation length (e.g. with 14 year coppice rotation, there will be 14 cants)chaparraldense thickets of trees in the Mediterranean region (Europe), California (USA) and Mexico, usually comprising evergreen broadleaved species adapted to hot dry summersclearingan area clear of trees in a wood or forest, sometimes created when trees are felled for timber or kept free to enhance biodiversity or landscapeclumphilltop group of trees, often prominent in the landscapecompartmentmanagement unit of a forest, used as a technical term among foresters to define areas under similar management or with discrete mixtures of tree speciescoupean area within a woodland where the trees are to be felledcoppicerefers to the management practice of coppicing, although sometimes used to describe an area managed as a coppice crop e.g. sweet chestnut coppicecopsetechnically an area managed as coppice but commonly used to describe a small wood. e.g. Piles Copsedellsmall valley or hollow, usually ( but not always) covered with treesforest or ForestWith a capital ‘F’ refers historically to a royal hunting forest (e.g. Forest of Dean, New Forest), but in modern usage with a lowercase used widely describe a large area of trees, although often interchangeably with wood or woodlandgrovea small group of trees, generally of an attractive naturehagga clearing in a wood or forest, from Old Norse and used still in northern Englandhangersmall group of trees on a hillside or slopehedge or hedgerowa line of trees, often comprising shrub species, traditionally planted and maintained to mark a boundary or to contain livestock. In some part of Britain (e.g. Devon) they are planted on top of soil-filled double stone walls. Traditionally managed by laying, and sometimes with occasional large trees left uncut to grow as ‘standards’krummholztrees growing at high latitudes and in exposed situations where their growth is stunted by extreme cold and wind, creating dwarfed and contorted formsmonoculturea group of trees consisting of a single species (e.g. in a plantation) or genetic similarity (e.g. a natural group of clonal aspen grown from suckers)orchardan area of trees planted and managed for their crop of fruit or nuts, typically using specific varieties to improve food quality and volume productionpinetuma collection of pine (Pinus spp.) trees forming a special type of arboretumplantationan area of trees deliberately planted by man as a forest operation, typically for timber production although not exclusivelyQuercetuma collection of oak (Quercus spp.) trees forming a special type of arboretumshrubberyan area of small trees (shrubs) in a gardenspinneya small area of trees, like a copse or wood but traditionally created and managed for hunting gamestanda forestry term used to describe an area of a forest with uniform tree species, structure, age, size etc., similar to a compartmentthicketa dense area of trees, often impenetrable to people wood or woodlandboth terms are used interchangeably, see also forestxylariumThis doesn’t belong here but I like the term! It refers to a collection of woody specimens, as a ‘herbarium’ is for plants.Collection Nouns for Trees



[image error]collective nouns for trees

Have I missed any terms for groups of trees?

Please add comments below and I will update the list. Thanks

Going Nuts About This

With just a little over one week until my collection of environment tales Tall Trees Short Stories is published, on 30th June, here’s a short trailer.

A short trailer for Tall Trees Short Stories.

Now available to order from all good book sellers, and from my Shop.

Also available online from Hive (supporting local bookshops).

Watch more films featuring Tall Trees Short Stories