The Tree Climbing Cure

Book excerpt: Our relationship with trees is a lengthy, complex one. Since we first walked the earth we have, at various times, worshiped them, felled them and even talked to them. For many of us, though, our first memories of interacting with trees will be of climbing them. Exploring how tree climbers have been represented in literature and art in Europe and North America over the ages, The Tree Climbing Cure unpacks the curative value of tree climbing, examining when and why tree climbers climb, and what tree climbing can do for (and say about) the climber's mental health and wellbeing. Bringing together research into poetry, novels, and paintings with the science of wellbeing and mental health and engaging with myth, folklore, psychology and storytelling, Tree Climber also examines the close relationship between tree climbing and imagination, and questions some longstanding, problematic gendered injunctions about women climbing trees. Discussing, among others, the literary works of Margaret Atwood; Charlotte Bronte; Geoffrey Chaucer; Angela Carter; Kiran Desai; and J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as work by artists such as Peter Doig; Paula Rego; and Goya, this book stands out as an almost encyclopedic examination of cultural representations of this quirky and ultimately restorative pastime.