With understated humour and his unusual insights, Oliver Rackham reveals their histories, in this new book, published in collaboration with The Woodland Trust. He was drawn to oddities and mysteries of trees and landscapes: bell-pits, a strange dwarf oakwood, towering gnarled beeches, and the famous rare Tintern spurge. 'Dark on the horizon', he writes, 'is the high ridge of Coed Gwent, Wentwood', and he explores it with fascination.