#BlogTour- ‘Green Gold’ by Gabriel Hemery

About the book-

In 1850, young Scottish plant hunter John Jeffrey was despatched by an elite group of Victorian subscribers to seek highly prized exotic trees in North America. An early letter home told of a 1,200-mile transcontinental journey by small boat and on foot.  Later, tantalising collections of seeds and plants arrived from British Columbia, Oregon and California, yet early promise soon withered. Four years after setting out, John Jeffrey, and his journals, disappeared without a trace.

Was he lost to love, violence or the Gold Rush? Green Gold combines meticulous research with the fictional narrative of Jeffrey’s lost journals, revealing an extraordinary adventure. 

Massive thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for the blogtour invite! I love historical fiction and ‘Green Gold’ by Gabriel Hemery looked fascinating for so many reasons-the mystery of what happened to John Jeffrey, what difference to the world did his plants and seeds make as well as what would he have written about in his journals? What would he have seen in a place so far away from his home in 19th Century Scotland?

Part of the conditions for him to travel was to send back samples alongside a written journal, but no journal was ever posted so not only was he breaking the contract of the Oregon Botanical Association who funded his exploits, can we ever really be sure that it was him who sent them?

Using an epistolary format, and switching back and forth between the journals, letters and modern day narration after they were ‘discovered’, this is a work of heart, you can absolutely see where Gabriel’s enthusiasm for nature and exploration lies, but also has a focus on the effect of man on his environment, acquistion of wealth and questionable morals and values.

The book weaves fact and fiction with actual historical documents-it’s educational in the best way as it takes you to a time and place where America was still a new continent whilst wealthy UK based parties were prepared to pay to receive samples of insects and plants.

The purpose and intent is dubious but reflects the trend at the time for exploration and acquisiton of ‘exotic’ specimens (including a native American girl, which was the only bit I wasn’t fond of as it seemed incongruous to the story)as well as the focus on the the Oregon Trail, the hardships endured by these early explorers.

I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend this book,it poses a fictional ending to an enduring mystery .

Much as the members of the Oregon Botanical Association were paying John to live vicariously through his exploits, we, the modern day reader, can challenge what we think we know in a world where everything has seemingly been discovered, and, consequently, live through Gabriel Hemery’s recreation of a lost but unforgotten explorer.

About the author-

Dr Gabriel Hemery is a silvologist (forest scientist), author and tree photographer.

He co-founded the Sylva Foundation in 2009, and has since led the charity as its Chief Executive. Gabriel is also a founding trustee of Fund4Trees.

Gabriel writes a top-ranking forestry blog www.GabrielHemery.com. His first and award-winning book, The New Sylva, was published by Bloomsbury in 2014, since followed by several other books. He is a keen amateur photographer of trees and forests, which he features in a dedicated website at The Tree Photographer.

A fellow of the Institute of Chartered Foresters, Gabriel has written more than 80 technical articles, cited in more than 700 articles by other scientists. He has worked widely in collaborative science programmes, ranging from genetic tree improvement to silvo-poultry research. In the 1990s, he created a centre dedicated to hardwood research at Paradise Wood in Oxfordshire, planting many tens of thousands of trees.

Gabriel played a key role in Our Forests, working with six other leading environmental campaigners, to save England’s public forests from government disposal during 2010-11.

He has served on several boards and committees, including the Woodland Trust’s Conservation Advisory Committee, and a Forestry Commission Advisory Committee. He regularly gives technical talks and is a guest lecturer at the University of Oxford.

Links-https://gabrielhemery.com/

https://unbound.com/

Twitter @GabrielHemery

@unbounders

@annecater

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