In 2012, Robert Penn felled (and replanted) a great ash from a Welsh wood. He set out to explore the true value of the tree of which we have made the greatest and most varied use in human history. How many things can be made from one tree?

Beautifully crafted, [ The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees ranges] freely over intellectual territory - masculinity, nostalgia, identity . . . Fascinating . . . Never have the benefits of getting your chopper out appeared more obvious (Robert Crampton, Books of the Year The Times)What a great book! Written with a great insight and a delicate balance between the scientific and biological and the utilitarian dimensions of the life of a tree, it offers the reader a chance to paradoxically (at first sight) experience awe and admiration before the miracle of life that a standing, living tree symbolises, and the intimate knowledge with which mankind has learned to exploit this most valuable natural resource to its full extent. The detailed descriptions of the author's meetings with many diverse craftsmen and artisans emphasizes a truth that we are all aware of, to varying extents, namely that craftmanship indeed does stand for an intimate knowledge of nature and man's full participation in its processes, knowledge and role which are in many cases on the verge of extinction, alas.

A wonderful journey and pleasure to read, I learnt a lot. However I feel this book is also a bit of a missed opportunity. Perhaps it helped that this was my second book from this Robert Penn (I read It's all about the bike) and my expectations were firm on the huge amount of passion coming through - on that the author delivered in full.To learn more, Penn decided to fell one and follow it as it was made into as many different things as possible. “I could get a writer’s desk and a table made,” he writes. “I would turn some of the less valuable timber into panelling for my office and worktops for my kitchen.” There would be plenty more besides, more than 40 different items in total, all from a single tree. Penn takes us through the various uses, with accompanying passages of history and science, sprinkled with trivia. A veteran writer and broadcaster, he has written several books on cycling and one on the weather, and has a keen eye for the interesting tangent. I hadn’t known, for instance, that the first Routemaster buses had ash frames. One of the most common uses for ash is tool handles. The experts are a little hazy about putting absolute date on when ash was first used, but it is safe to say that it has been used for several thousand years. The properties of ash make it the perfect material, it is tough, strong and flexible, not too heavy and the very act of handling the wood adds a patina to it making it nicer to handle. One of the last tool manufacturers in UK offer to turn some of his planks into axe handles, and he pays them a visit. In no time at all they are cut to shape, and sanded to the ideal shape. His first objects from that tree. But he does talk about his passion, ash trees, with encyclopedic depth and you can feel his reverence for this particular brand of tree. It's a bit much at times, in a "we get it, ash is very useful and has been forever" kind of way, but the best bits of this book are the points where he meanders through an unkempt history of the way ash was used in such and such country or region, and it is overall interesting and informative. Rob Penn felled a single ash tree and set out to make as many things as possible from the wood. He travelled widely to visit master crafters who took parts of his tree and made it into over 40 items including: a desk, kitchen worktops, spoons, a tobbogan and axe handles.

Penn is a fine writer, and the mix of research, reportage and personal reflection is persuasive . . . A lovely book (Ed Cumming Observer) Robert Penn cut down an ash tree to see how many things could be made from it. After all, ash is the tree we have made the greatest and most varied use of over the course of human history. Journeying from Wales across Europe and Ireland to the USA, Robert finds that the ancient skills and knowledge of the properties of ash, developed over millennia making wheels and arrows, furniture and baseball bats, are far from dead. The book chronicles how the urge to understand and appreciate trees still runs through us all like grain through wood.The Woodland Trust details numerous ways in which people can get involved. It runs several preservation initiatives, from recording the health of veteran trees in their area via the trust’s Ancient Tree Inventory, to helping map urban tree cover, which can then be used to lobby councils for more trees or better protection for existing ones. Out of all the trees in the world, the ash is most closely bound up with who we are: the tree we have made the greatest and most varied use of over the course of human history. One frigid winter morning, Robert Penn lovingly selected an ash tree and cut it down. He wanted to see how many beautiful, handmade objects could be made from it.