The Wood Age

‘A stunning book on the incalculable debt humanity owes to wood …Roland Ennos’s knowledge of all things arboreal is vast and intricate. He is a professor of biology at the University of Hull and the author of several books, among them the Natural History Museum’s official guide to trees. But The Wood Age is something different — nothing less than a complete reinterpretation of human history and prehistory, and it is written with enormous verve and pinpoint clarity … No review can match the richness of Ennos’s book. There are chapters or sections on coal and charcoal, pottery kilns, modern wooden buildings, techniques of melting and smelting metals, the history of shipbuilding, wind and watermills, deforestation and much else … I felt like cheering.’ John Carey, The Sunday Times

‘A lively history of biology, mechanics and culture that stretches back 60 million years… A specialist in the mechanics of wood, Ennos has a fierce love for his topic’ Nature

‘Passionate … In this very readable historical survey, Ennos argues that not only do we need to reassess the role wood has played in our history, but by embracing a new age of wood, we can help to reset our broken relationship to the natural world … [A] fascinating ‘wood-centred view’ of our history’ P.D. Smith, Guardian

‘Wonderful’ i news

‘An eye-opening piece of environmental history … Excellent … Comes highly recommended’ The Inquisitive Biologist

‘Ennos, a professor at the University of Hull and a specialist in the mechanical properties of trees, shares his insatiable curiosity with us. He applies his sharp eye for details, and he does so entertainingly’ Washington Post

‘Ennos’s special love and concern is for things made from trees … The principles of every significant technology, from tree-felling and carpentry to shipbuilding and papermaking, are described with a precise, almost mesmerizing detail’ New York Times Book Review