Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree

A celebration of our connection with trees

By: David George Haskell

Narrated by: David George Haskell, Katherine Lehman

Featuring music composed and performed by Katherine Lehman.

Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree takes you on a journey to connect with trees through the sense most aligned to our emotions and memories. Thirteen essays are included that explore the evocative scents of trees, from the smell of a book just printed as you first open its pages, to the calming scent of Linden blossom, to the ingredients of a particularly good gin and tonic.

In your hand: a highball glass, beaded with cool moisture.

In your nose: the aromatic embodiment of globalised trade. The spikey herbal odour of European juniper berries. A tang of lime juice from a tree descended from wild progenitors in the foothills of the Himalayas. Bitter quinine, from the bark of the South American cinchona tree, spritzed into your nostrils by the pop of sparkling tonic water.

Take a sip, feel the aroma and taste of three continents converge.

Each essay also contains a practice the listener is invited to experience. For example, taking a tree inventory of our own home, appreciating just how many things around us came from trees. And if you've ever hugged a tree when no one was looking, try breathing in the scents of different trees that live near you, the smell of pine after the rain, the refreshing, mind-clearing scent of a eucalyptus leaf crushed in your hand.

©2021 David George Haskell (P)2021 Octopus Publishing Group