For the past century, a deadly pandemic has raged across the world, destroying all in its path and outmanoeuvring scientists' desperate attempts to halt it.
Dutch elm disease has killed hundreds of millions of trees globally and over 25 million in the UK alone, altering our landscapes forever. Few young people have seen a mature elm tree, yet they once covered great swathes of Europe and North America and their legacy lives on in our mythology.
Join Mandy Haggith on Friday 12th September at 7pm, as she discusses lyrical love letter to trees and a story of the devastation left behind by Dutch elm disease, The Lost Elms.
Mandy tells the story of how we have nearly lost them all, and the long, slow fight back. It tells the gripping story of the scientists desperately trying to halt the disease's relentless progress, and demonstrates the deadly effect globalisation can have on the environment, the threat of climate change, the importance of biosecurity and the intricate ways in which trees are interlinked with other species. Woven throughout is a lyrical look at the elm's central place in our history, culture and folklore - the elm features heavily in Greek, Celtic, Japanese, Germanic and Scandinavian mythology; as the 'Liberty Tree' it played a symbolic role in both the American and French Revolutions; and since ancient times the elm has held associations with death and the supernatural.
However all is not lost: recent breakthroughs in ecological understanding reveal elms to be far more resilient than we ever imagined. This tree holds an important place in our history, and now might just offer hopeful lessons for how we can save other disappearing species and our environment.
Mandy Haggith lives in a remnant of ancient rainforest in northwest Scotland and spent 20 years as a forest activist, from award-winning local campaigns in Scotland all the way to the UN. She is now an honorary research fellow and lecturer in creative writing at the University of the Highlands and Islands. She is the author of Paper Trails: From Trees to Trash - The True Cost of Paper, five novels and six poetry collections, and editor of the tree poem anthology, Into the Forest. https://www.mandyhaggith.net/
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Doors: 6.30pm, event starts: 7pm, please arrive early to secure a good seat.
Tickets are £3 and there is a Ticket & Book option which includes a signed copy of The Lost Elms by Mandy Haggith.
The bookshop has level access, events are seated and speakers use microphones. If you have any concerns about accessibility, please do get in touch and we will do our best to accommodate your needs.
Refunds are reviewed on a case-by-case basis, we are unable to offer a refund after the event.
For more information or if you would like a signed copy because you can't make it to the event, please contact the Blackwell's events team on 0131 622 8222 or matthew.land@waterstones.com
