If someone had told me the book I wrote back in 2017 would be going into a third edition in 2024, I’d have thought they were mad.
But that mythical person was right! London’s Street Trees: A Field Guide to the Urban Forest will soon be available in a brand new, bumper 240 page third edition. It’s packed full of new features, new photos and lots of new tree species too.
When the first edition of London’s Street Trees was published, I could not believe the reaction. Just to be clear: we are not talking about a new Harry Potter book or some celebrity biography kind of reaction, but it was nevertheless astonishing. It turned out there were thousands of people out there who were interested, and continue to be interested in street trees, and I am thrilled this little book is now in its third edition.
One of those new species is, remarkably, the Lemon (Citrus x limon). Thanks to my publisher, Safe Haven Books, London’s first Lemon street tree now grows in Shoreditch as a direct result of the popularity of this book.
Its planting was a long time coming. It was originally purchased by Graham, the publisher, to mark the second edition’s launch back in 2020, but with the pandemic and lockdowns, finding a suitable place for it proved difficult. Finally, after two winters in Italy and one in the care of the brilliant Tree Musketeers at the Hackney Tree Nursery, it made it into the Shoreditch substrate in March 2024, the very end of the planting season, and just in time to feature in the pages of the third edition.
This book, London’s Street Trees – Third Edition, is for anyone who is interested in trees and this great green city. It is for all those who have noticed the trees around them, and is a celebration of the burgeoning, diverse and beautiful urban arboretum that grows on our doorsteps.
If you’d like to get your hands on a signed copy, please order in my shop.