Gabriel Hemery's Blog: Gabriel Hemery, page 19

Reader reviews of Green Gold

Green Gold has attracted good reviews from readers on various book reviewing platforms. Before they become buried in their busy book reviewing archives, I have selected a few choice quotes to share below.

You can also check out reviews on Amazon (currently 4 stars), and Goodreads (3.6 stars). If you’ve read Green Gold, I’d be very grateful if you could leave a review on one of these or other platforms, as this will help more readers discover the book.

A real adventure in the written form. Marvellous.

Orlando Books

I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend this book, it poses a fictional ending to an enduring mystery.

Rachel Read It

Hemery uses . . . factual details and meticulous research to weave the fictional story of the expedition through diary entries. The overall effect is a captivating story of adventure in very different times to our own.

Bella Jones

. . . the research that went into this novel is impressive . . . Hemery clearly put a lot of work into this book and the labor of love shows in its attention to detail, its consistency of voice, and its creative use of the information.

Scintilla

Anyone interested in botany and the history of plant hunters will find this a fascinating read.  Gabriel brings the realities of these dangerous expeditions to life and by giving John [Jeffrey] a voice has brought him and his legacy to light in the twenty-first century. 

Tales Before Bedtime

I thought it was really good.

Halfman Halfbook

If you have any interest at all in botany or the Victorian era – but quite frankly even if you don’t, since it’s such an enjoyable read! – you will thoroughly this intriguing and elucidating novel.

Books are Cool

Gabriel Hemery has done an amazing job in telling the story of the plant hunter and his expedition through his journals. For anyone who loves history or the study of plants then Green Gold is a book you will enjoy reading.

The Last Word

My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things tours for organising the reviews of Green Gold on a blog tour, and to all the book reviewers. 

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The Brief Life of Flowers – a review

I’ve finally got round to reading Fiona Stafford’s The Brief Life of Flowers, and what a wonderful read it is. Its elegant, beguiling and scented prose, brings the wonder of plants alive.

The opening chapter describes a very personal floral journey for the author, brought up as the child of a military family, with one canvas after another available to paint with flowers.

I found the included quote from poet John Drinkwater to apply as much to a landscape (as he, and author Fiona Stafford intended), as it does to this book:

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[the less a place (this book)] “may seem to assert itself, the more profoundly will it possess us, instruct us, become memorable.”

John Drinkwater

After the introduction, entitled ‘Springs’, there are 15 chapters, each featuring a popular flower, from the bluebell and daisy, to the snowdrop and sunflower, via the ghost orchid and gillyflower (which I learnt is the old name for a wallflower).

In the Lime Flowers chapter, the reader visits mastercarver Grinling Gibbons, has a fleeting visit to traditions of illicit behaviour in Germany, and learns about the wonders of lime honey. This is a typical experience in the book, which at all times holds the attention of the reader with deft hands. The author manages to dazzle the reader with poetry, prose, history, entomology, botany, and much more. While the writing is rich and fertile, it is also very accessible and likely to appeal to a wide readership.

This wondrous book emulates the common poppy it features: “short, brave, brilliant.”

Fiona Stafford (2019). The Brief Life of Flowers, John Murray. £10.99 RRP.

I have a copy of The Brief Life of Flowers to give away to a lucky reader. Simply sign up to my Newsletter for a change to win.
Deadline 23:59, 22nd June 2019.

I am grateful to the publishers for providing me a copy of this book. This was not in exchange for a review, favourable or otherwise.

This review includes affiliate links (read more).

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Film of book launch

I’ve released a short film featuring an extract from the launch of GREEN GOLD at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh on 26th April.

Included are some pictures from the exhibition, which opened the same day, while I read a five minute extract from book to an attentive group of book supporters.

Green Gold book launch at the Royal Botanic Garden, 26th April 2019

The exhibition at RBGE remains open until end June. Entry is free. Find out more

My thanks to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, and especially Ian Edwards, for hosting the event. And to artist Nicola Macartney for supporting the exhibition by allowing her wonderful to paintings to be included. Finally, my thanks to everyone who came and I hope you enjoyed the launch, exhibition, and of course the fabulous gardens in the spring sunshine.

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Green Gold feature in Scottish Forestry

I was delighted to have my article about the life of Scottish plant hunter John Jeffrey, and my recently published fictional biography entitled Green Gold, featured in the Spring/Summer edition of Scottish Forestry, the journal of the Royal Scottish Forestry Society.

[image error]Scottish Forestry journal Spring 2019

The article highlights the life of Scotsman John Jeffrey, his employment by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE), and the wealthy Scottish investors who supported his expedition to North America.

In the article, I was also able to promote the exhibition currently open at RBGE, which runs until end June, and which includes free entry.

[image error] Green Gold: Plants from the travels of John Jeffrey

My thanks to editor Carol Crawford, and the Royal Scottish Forestry Society.

Hemery, G. (2019). Green Gold. Scottish Forestry, 73, (1), p.44.

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Illustrating an environmental catastrophe

Given the massive media interest in the paper I co-authored about ash dieback (published last week in Current Biology) — 280 news channels, magazines, and newspapers, and counting— it was easy to overlook that the journal selected one of my tree photographs for the cover of the issue.

[image error]Current Biology, 6 May 2019, Photo Gabriel Hemery

I photographed the beautiful ancient ash tree (Fraxinus excelsior) growing on a traditional estate and parkland in Herefordshire, England, while I was researching for my book The New Sylva. I shot the image with a Panasonic Lumix micro four-thirds format camera on a tripod, and a 45mm (90mm equivalent in 35mm) lens, using a tripod for support.

The tree is an ancient pollard, meaning that the tree was once cut regularly to yield timber for firewood and other purposes. A pollard cut is always made at shoulder height so that cattle or deer cannot graze the tender shoots which grow soon after pollarding. Today, the tree’s hollow bole is riddled with holes and stumps from former branches, providing a haven for insects and other biodiversity.

Read more about my Tree Photography.

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Ash dieback paper kindles national interest

Today, the media picked up on the importance of the scientific paper which I revealed yesterday, which calculates the economic cost of ash dieback in Britain to total £15 billion.

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Here’s a selection of the resulting press interest:

New ScientistThe GuardianThe TimesThe Independent (though confused £millions with £billions!)The Daily MailThe ScotsmanBBC Radio OxfordBBC Radio 4 Today Programme and local radio BBC news website

Read my post about the research paper

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Ash dieback is an environmental calamity that will cost Britain £15 billion

A research paper published today estimates that the cost of ash dieback in Britain will reach a shocking £15 billion. I was privileged to have supported lead author Louise Hill as an external supervisor, and to be a co-author of this important paper.

[image error] Current Biology, May 6 2019

Behind the scenes, in the run up to publication, the findings of the paper have caused considerable ‘excitement’, and this is why:

The total cost of Ash dieback to the UK is estimated to be £15 billionHalf of this cost (£7 billion) will come be over the next 10 yearsThe total cost is 50 times greater than the annual value of trade in live plants to and from Britain, which is the most important route by which invasive plant diseases enter the countryThere are 47 other known tree pests and diseases that could arrive in Britain and which may cost an additional £1 billion or more

Ash dieback will cost British society one-third more that the foot-and-mouth outbreak of 2001. In fact, it is likely to be the largest economic impact to British society so far caused by a preventable environmental calamity.

Gabriel Hemery

The mortality expected among Britain’s ash trees is expected to result in 95% of the county’s 150 million ash trees dying over the next few years. This will be a far greater disaster than the loss of elm in the 1970s. Some papers have suggested that mortality in Europe has averaged (75-85%), yet data from 11 recent academic papers from European scientists suggest it will average 94.3% (range 86.1-99%). Note also, that such calculations do not include the impact of human reaction to the disease, in the form of tree felling (for example due to health & safety concerns), and that Britain’s humid climate is expected to cause more severe disease than in much of Europe. Full details on these papers and calculations are provided in the supplementary Excel workbook which accompanies the paper.

Ash dieback is not ‘natural’. It was introduced into Europe
from Asia on planting material, and then from Europe to UK when diseased ash trees
were imported and then planted across UK, despite warnings from scientists at
the time. It probably also spread across the channel via airborne spores, but
the original introductions and subsequent rapid spread were as a direct result
of tree imports and planting.

It is evident that we cannot stop ash dieback, so our top
priority must be preventing other diseases arriving by improving biosecurity at
our borders. So, these are my key messages arising from this work:

Governments worldwide should take biosecurity
more seriously.UK government should revise its mortality
estimates for ash dieback, and plan accordingly.Market failure is driving the value of trade in
live plants. The value of the market is small compared to the costs arising
from poor biosecurity.Tree disease (and pathogen) outbreaks are
increasing exponentially in Britain, largely driven by trade. A large number of
potential other threats are looming — including oak wilt fungus (Ceratocystis fagacearum), bot canker
fungus (Diplodia corticola), and the
bacterium Xyella fastidiosa) — all of
which could lead to multiple and overlapping epidemics which could devastate
our trees.Local authorities will be hit with costs at
least 200% greater than their average current tree health budgets. Dead trees
cause an immediate and significant risk to human health, particularly near to
the transport network. Central government will need to intervene by providing
emergency funding.Research funding needs to be increased
significantly. UK government research has awarded £6.7 million since the
arrival of ash dieback, yet this represents less than 1% of the estimated costs
of the disease.



Read the full paper:

Download the full paper:
www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(19)30331-8

Paper DOI:
10.1016/j.cub.2019.03.033

Paper citation:
Hill, L, G Jones, N Atkinson, A Hector, G Hemery, and N Brown. 2019. “The £15 Billion Cost of Ash Dieback in Britain.” Conservation Biology 29 (9): R315–16. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.03.033.

Further reading:



Plant Biosecurity Strategy for Great Britain, DefraMy previous posts about ash diebackMy other scientific papersThis paper is the third paper arising from Louise Hill’s work:



Hill, L, G Hemery, A Hector, and N Brown. 2019. “Maintaining Ecosystem Properties after Loss of Ash in Great Britain.” Journal of Applied Ecology 56 (2): 282–93. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13255.Hill, L, A Hector, G Hemery, S Smart, M Tanadini, and N Brown. 2017. “Abundance Distributions for Tree Species in Great Britain: A Two-Stage Approach to Modeling Abundance Using Species Distribution Modeling and Random Forest.” Ecology and Evolution 7 (4): 1043–56. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2661.

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Brave botanist who fell off the edge of the world

It was great to see my book Green Gold featured in The Daily Mail’s book section today. Journalist Brian Viner celebrates the achievements of the little-known Victorian plant hunter John Jeffrey, who he describes as one of “the astronauts of their age”.

“beguiling . . . fascinating”

The Daily Mail, 3rd May 2019

[image error] Brave botanist who fell off the edge of the world. The Daily Mail, 3rd May 2019

Read the full story online

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Interview at The Edinburgh Bookshop

Last week, while in Edinburgh for the launch of my book Green Gold at the Royal Botanic Garden, I was lucky to be invited to one of Scotland’s award-winning independent bookshops. The Edinburgh Bookshop is a treasure trove for book lovers, nestling in the heart of the city’s ‘Holy Corner’.

I chatted with Kate on their famous sofa, reading a short extract, talking about plant hunter John Jeffrey, and answering a few random question from the cat’s hat.

Gabriel Hemery on the sofa with The Edinburgh Bookshop, April 2019

My thanks to The Edinburgh Bookshop for their enthusiastic support. If you’re in Edinburgh, make sure you pay them a visit.

See more videos about Green Gold on my YouTube channel, such as this one which charts John Jeffrey’s 10,000 mile journey.

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Exhibition opens in Edinburgh

Today, an exhibition opens at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh which celebrates the life of Victorian plant hunter John Jeffrey.

I’ve designed and curated the exhibition with staff from RBGE. Its opening has been timed to coincide with the launch of my latest book Green Gold.

[image error]Entrance to the Green Gold exhibition

The exhibition features the paintings of Nicola Macartney, plus materials from RBGE including specimens from the Herbarium, and letters and minutes from their archives.

The exhibition is open daily between 1000-1745 and runs until end June, and entry is free. Here’s a sneak preview.

Find out more at: www.rbge.org.uk/whats-on/green-gold-plants-from-the-travels-of-john-jeffrey

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