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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'In The Tree in Changing Light', Roger McDonald meditates on our unique landscape and its rich tapestry of native and introduced trees, which 'give language to our existence'. His most intimate and personal book to date, it also celebrates country men like his grandfather Chester Bucknall, a forester and pine-planter, of whom he writes,'I believe him to have been a dreamer about trees'; Wilf Crane, Roger McDonald's mentor with trees who flew planes across country on solo planting raids and whose death while flying inspired this book; and Tom Wyatt, a bush gardener whose dedicated hands made trees bloom in Queensland towns. Here too are historical vignettes of a landscape husbanded for many centuries by Aborigines, yet swiftly and irrevocably changed by European settlement; encounters with poets and painters inspired by trees; tales of ordinary people for whom trees are talismanic; and interwoven throughout are autobiographical sketches, slices of family history and episodes from Roger McDonald's own life as a writer and sometime planter of trees. An unusual and beautiful book, The Tree in Changing Light is the moving and personal statement of a writer about his relationship with the land, with language, with memory and with Australia's cultural and literary heritage.' Source: http://www.randomhouse.com.au/Books/Default.aspx?Page=Book&ID=9781740511810 (Sighted 10/08/2006).
Notes
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Epigraph: No genuine book has a first page. Like the rustling of a forest, it is begotten God knows where, and it grows and it rolls, arousing the dense wilds of the forest until suddenly, in the very darkest, most stunned and panicked moment, it rolls to its end and begins to speak with all the treetops at once.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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The Wood from the Trees : Taxonomy and the Eucalypt as the New National Hero in Recent Australian Writing
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 3 no. 2004; (p. 81-94) Explores the cultural circulation of the Eucalyptus as represented in a variety of recent Australian texts. -
Some Dynamics of Literary Placemaking : An Australian Perspective
2003
single work
criticism
— Appears in: ISLE : Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment , Summer vol. 10 no. 2 2003; (p. 97-109)
— Appears in: Homing In : Essays on Australian Literature and Selfhood 2006; (p. 231-241; notes 279-280) -
Untitled
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: Muse , February no. 214 2002; (p. 13-14)
— Review of The Tree in Changing Light 2001 single work autobiography -
Untitled
2001-2002
single work
review
— Appears in: JAS Review of Books , December-January no. 4 2001-2002;
— Review of The Tree in Changing Light 2001 single work autobiography -
Towards Enchantment
2001
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 236 2001; (p. 51-52)
— Review of The Tree in Changing Light 2001 single work autobiography
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Untitled
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: Muse , February no. 214 2002; (p. 13-14)
— Review of The Tree in Changing Light 2001 single work autobiography -
Take a Bough, It was Worth the Wait
2001
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 13-14 October 2001; (p. 11)
— Review of The Tree in Changing Light 2001 single work autobiography -
McDonald's Recipe is an Organic Act of Renewal
2001
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 3 November 2001; (p. 9)
— Review of The Tree in Changing Light 2001 single work autobiography -
Tree Whiz
2001
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 13 November vol. 119 no. 6301 2001; (p. 90)
— Review of The Tree in Changing Light 2001 single work autobiography -
Out on a Limb
2001
single work
review
— Appears in: Brisbane News , 7-13 November 2001; (p. 9)
— Review of The Tree in Changing Light 2001 single work autobiography -
Some Dynamics of Literary Placemaking : An Australian Perspective
2003
single work
criticism
— Appears in: ISLE : Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment , Summer vol. 10 no. 2 2003; (p. 97-109)
— Appears in: Homing In : Essays on Australian Literature and Selfhood 2006; (p. 231-241; notes 279-280) -
The Wood from the Trees : Taxonomy and the Eucalypt as the New National Hero in Recent Australian Writing
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 3 no. 2004; (p. 81-94) Explores the cultural circulation of the Eucalyptus as represented in a variety of recent Australian texts. -
Confessions of a Tree-Hugger
2001
single work
biography
— Appears in: Good Weekend , 29 September 2001; (p. 33, 35, 38, 40) -
The Trees of Man
2001
single work
criticism
biography
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 29-30 September 2001; (p. 6-7) -
Prose Shimmers in the Light Among Trees
2001
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 27 October 2001; (p. 4-5)
Last amended 10 Aug 2006 09:47:29
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