Magnificent oak tree plants the seed for Buckingham man’s debut children’s book

A Buckingham man has written a picture book that aims to educate children about trees and woodlands and how to plant and care for them .

Quercus the Oak Tree is the first in a series of stories which Linden Village resident Neil Morton first dreamed up 30 years ago when his own children were young.

It has been illustrated by 18-year-old Buckingham resident Zaria Mmanga.

Neil, aged 75, said: “The idea started in 1992. I used to be a land agent with the Bucks County Council and we managed quite a lot of woods in the Chilterns and I was designing a nature trail in a wood near Denham.

“And whilst designing this trail, I came across this magnificent oak tree, and it was what we would call ‘veneer quality’ – it was absolutely perfect, straight as a die. It didn’t have a branch coming off the bole of the tree for about 30ft and it was 5ft in diameter.

“And I thought to myself, how on earth did this tree survive so for long and be such a magnificent specimen? It was what the Forestry Commission would call a ‘tree bank’ - they would collect seed from it. And that got me thinking.”

Neil, who has has worked in forestry all his life, started making up stories about Quercus the oak tree for his son, Roger.

"I wrote the first two books fairly quickly,” he said. “Sitting in a wood just looking around myself, I decided to tell a story about how a little acorn grew into a great big tree."

“Forestry has been a passion of my life and I can do any of the operations from felling a tree to sawmilling them and looking after them, so I know what these little trees have to put up with

“And the story is based around that – it’s an education for young children as to the routines of a wood, wrapped up in a story about the relationships of the trees with each other.”

And Neil has more books in the series lined up, following Quercus as he grows into a mature oak tree.

“I’ve written four of the books and I’m on book five,” he said. “And assuming I live long enough, I’ll get to book 10!”

And he added: “You’d be amazed how historical events have an effect on the management of woods.”

“Book eight is the Napoleonic Wars and the Battle of Trafalgar, and this tree, Quercus, who’s now grown quite big, meets Lord Nelson walking through the wood.

"Because it is a historical fact that Nelson was astounded by the fact that 6,000 trees had to be felled to build The Victory, so he was determined to go round and replant some of the deficit.”

Books nine and 10 cover the time from the First World War up to the present day.

"I’m not going to tell you the end of the story because I haven’t quite decided on it,” Neil said, “but the true end is a bit drastic and has already happened.”

Neil hopes the instructions in his books will help schools learn how to design nature walks and care for trees.