The Ancients

In wild Tasmania there are trees whose direct ancestors lived with dinosaurs. Many of those alive today are thousands of years old, and some have been growing for ten millennia or more. They are mostly hard to reach, hidden in forest valleys or on remote mountains, survivors of human greed and fire.

Prize-winning nature writer Andrew Darby takes us on an island odyssey to discover the world's oldest surviving trees. First, he seeks the little-known King's Lomatia, perhaps the oldest single tree of all. Then the primeval King Billy, Pencil and Huon pines - with their vivid stories of admiration and destruction - and the majestic giant eucalypts. Finally, he looks at the 'mother tree', the Myrtle Beech, and Australia's only endemic winter deciduous tree, the golden Fagus.

On his journey he shares the stories of the people who identified the ancients - scientists and nature-lovers who teased out their secrets and came to venerate them. Lacking defences to fire, these awe-inspiring trees face growing threats as the climate changes. But their protection is becoming more sophisticated, offering hope for their future - and ours.

Paperback, 304 pages, published by Allen & Unwin, 2025