The Tree Climbing Cure: Finding Wellbeing in Trees in European and North American Literature and Art

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Our relationship with trees is a lengthy, complex one. Since we first walked the earth we have, at various times, worshiped them, felled them and even talked to them. For many of us, though, our first memories of interacting with trees will be of climbing them. Exploring how tree climbers have been represented in literature and art in Europe and North America over the ages, The Tree Climbing Cure unpacks the curative value of tree climbing, examining when and why tree climbers climb, and what tree climbing can do for (and say about) the climbers mental health and wellbeing. Bringing together research into poetry, novels, and paintings with the science of wellbeing and mental health and engaging with myth, folklore, psychology and storytelling, Tree Climber also examines the close relationship between tree climbing and imagination, and questions some longstanding, problematic gendered injunctions about women climbing trees. Discussing, among others, the literary works of Margaret Atwood; Charlotte Bronte; Geoffrey Chaucer; Angela Carter; Kiran Desai; and J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as work by artists such as Peter Doig; Paula Rego; and Goya, this book stands out as an almost encyclopedic examination of cultural representations of this quirky and ultimately restorative pastime.

Reviews

The Tree Climbing Cure confirms what many of us knew as childrenthat theres something intrinsically good about gazing down at the world from precarious perches in trees. Its no wonder that theres abundant literature and art devoted to the tree-climbing (and other ways of being near trees), and Andy Brown deeply examines this aesthetic tradition in his excellent contribution to the current movement of arboreal ecocriticism. -- Scott Slovic, University Distinguished Professor of Environmental Humanities, University of Idaho, USA
If the art of climbing rock has a long and popular literary and artistic history, why are those who climb trees associated with immaturity and derangement Who knew that tree climbers, too, have a long and fascinating artistic history which Andy Brown reveals in this remarkable book Without dodging the difficult questions, Brown carefully considers the wellbeing issues raised by tree climbing arts. And you dont have to leave the ground to feel the benefits sensitively conveyed by this uplifting book. -- Terry Gifford, author of The Joy of Climbing, Green Voices, Pastoral and Reconnecting With John Muir.
Andy Brown's The Tree Climbing Cure is a fascinating study of tree climbers and tree climbing in literature and art as well as in practice across Europe and North America. The book's emphasis on the restorative power of tree climbing is particularly timely. The Tree Climbing Cure will appeal to a range of readers, from scholars and students of ecocriticism and environmental philosophy to anyone who enjoys time among trees. -- Karen Thornber, Harry Tuchman Levin Professor in Literature and Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, USA, author of 'Ecoambiguity' and 'Global Healing'

Author Bio

Andy Brown is Professor of Creative Writing & English at Exeter University, UK. He co-edited the anthology A Body of Work: an anthology of poetry and medicine among other edited books on poetry and poetics, including The Writing Occurs as Song: a Kelvin Corcoran reader. He is also widely known in the UK and abroad as a distinguished lyric poet and has published over ten original poetry collections.