New Sylva cover

New Sylva

by Gabriel Hemery

In 1664, the British horticulturist and diarist John Evelyn published Sylva. This comprehensive study of the nation's trees was the first book ever published by the Royal Society. It was also the world's earliest forestry book. Evelyn's elegant prose still has much to tell us today, but the world has changed dramatically since his day. Now authors Gabriel Hemery and Sarah Simblet, taking inspiration from the original work, have masterfully created a contemporary resource--The New Sylva. Silvologist Gabriel Hemery explains what trees really mean to us culturally, environmentally and economically--followed by forty-four detailed tree portrait sections that describe the history and the features of trees such as oak, elm, beech, willow, fir, pine, juniper, plane, apple and pear.

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?