"Booker dozen" planted by literary judges at Heartwood Forest
The 2009 judges of The Man Booker Prize for Fiction are today (16 March) planting an open book of Scots pine trees in Heartwood Forest - an 850 acre Hertfordshire site set to become England’s largest new native forest.
For the second year running, the Man Booker Prize is collaborating with the Woodland Trust over this symbolic gesture to compensate for the trees felled in order to produce the hundred-plus books submitted for the prize each year.
The judges are planting 13 Scots pine saplings in the Trust’s woodland site near St Albans in Hertfordshire as a living commemoration of the ‘Booker Dozen’ - the 13 titles chosen for that year’s longlist from which Hilary Mantel’s novel Wolf Hall was chosen as winner.
Ion Trewin, Literary Director of the Man Booker Prizes joined the judges - broadcaster and author James Naughtie (Chair); biographer and critic, Lucasta Miller; Literary Editor of The Sunday Telegraph, Michael Prodger; academic and author, Professor John Mullan and comedian and broadcaster, Sue Perkins.
Last year, the 2008 judges planted an avenue of oak trees in a Trust site in Theydon Bois, after deciding they would like to replenish some of the trees cut down to produce the many novels submitted for the prize. In 2009, 132 books were submitted for the prize (including 11 titles called in by the judges), which was more than in any other year.
Ion Trewin comments: "I'm delighted that for a second year the Man Booker judges have decided to put something back by planting this open book of Scots pines. May it inspire others in the years to come."
Heartwood Forest is a woodland story set to run and run. With around 80 thousand of its proposed 650 thousand native trees now planted, the forest will be a long term asset for the environment, local people and wildlife.
Laura Judson, Head of Regional Development at the Woodland Trust, comments, “This is the second chapter of our very welcome association with Man Booker, and we decided that Scots pine was an appropriate tree to plant at Heartwood. There are already Scots pines on site and it is the most likely of our British trees to have been used to manufacture paper for printing”.Notes to editors
For media enquiries contact:
The Woodland Trust Press Office on 01476 581121, email: media@woodlandtrust.org.uk
The Woodland Trust:
The Woodland Trust is the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity. It has 300,000 members and supporters.
The Trust has three key aims: i) to enable the creation of more native woods and places rich in trees ii) to protect native woods, trees and their wildlife for the future iii) to inspire everyone to enjoy and value woods and trees
Established in 1972, the Woodland Trust now has over 1,000 sites in its care covering approximately 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres). Access to its sites is free.