Great British Elms

Authors: Mark Seddon, David Shreeve, Photographer: Sam Ford, 224 pages, 254 x 214 mm. Hardback, ISBN 9781842468180, Kew Publishing.

Great British Elms: The remarkable story of an iconic tree and it’s return from the brink is a celebration of the British elm and offers positive hope for its future. Since the 1970s nearly all elms in the British Isles have proven to be susceptible to outbreaks of Dutch elm disease, in particular the eponymous English elm. Millions of trees were lost, their new summer skeletal forms disfiguring the countryside and townscapes quite dramatically. The beetles carrying the disease as fungus spores spread very quickly, often advancing as far as the wind and the temperatures would allow.

However, the elm was not lost forever. Among all this sudden death and destruction, unnoticed by many, some elms survived the onslaught. This is the story of their recovery. The authors provide a first-person narrative throughout with contributions from leading figures in the story of the elm, including Kew’s Tony Hall, Caroline Lucas MP and Geraint Richards, Head Forester Duchy of Cornwall. Through these narratives we learn about the efforts of those who have been intimately involved with the elm, often unnoticed and unappreciated. From conservationists working to propagate and plant new species of elm and find disease-resistant trees, to specialist furniture makers utilising elm’s unique properties, this book provides a full picture of the British elm today.

The book also covers the history of the elm in culture, folklore, art and literature, and the many different varieties of elm growing today in the British Isles. Illustrated throughout with stunning photography of these beautiful trees by Sam Ford, in this book the authors have created a pictorial and historical record of the elm and offer hope for its future.

Author information

Mark Seddon is a journalist and a former foreign correspondent, who also worked for the United Nations as a speechwriter to UN Secretary-General, Ban ki-moon. He was editor of Tribune and UN and Diplomatic Correspondent for Al Jazeera. Mark can trace his initial interest in elms back to Brighton, visiting his grandparents in the 1970s, keeping a young elm sapling watered throughout the great drought year of 1976, while becoming aware of the local battle to save Brighton’s elm trees, which now forms the National Elm Collection.

David Shreeve MBE was born in Devon and created the Elms Across Europe campaign in 1979, and thanks to its success, co-founded The Conservation Foundation in 1982 with David Bellamy. Whilst running the Foundation, David also became an environmental adviser to the Church of England following the Yews for the Millennium project and was awarded a Lambeth degree in 2003. David was awarded an MBE for services to the environment in the first King’s Birthday Honours in 2023.

Sam Ford studied graphic design and photography at Kingston School of Art and has a D&AD Pencil for photography. With a practice developing subjects into a visual language for new audiences, here to complement the stories and celebrate the elm, Sam’s photographs convey their diversity and character placed in our modern changing landscape.