Autumnal Leaves, Francis George Heath

When we opened Autumnal Leaves in a charity shop and saw the faded reddish-brown of pressed leaves slip between its inside pages, we clutched it so close to our chest and hurried to the till before anyone realised how wrongly priced this piece of treasure was. Autumnal Leaves aims to convey the pleasure found in wandering autumn hedges in all of their colour and form, with a spectacular index that lets you know where to find mentions ‘Stillness, Charm of’, ‘Gold of encrusting Lichen’, ‘Peaches, Tempting’ and our personal favourite, ‘The dying splendour of the sun.’

Francis George Heath (1843-1913) is the author of Tree Lore, Our Woodland Trees, Autumnal Leaves, Peasant Life and Fairy Plants. Heath was an enthusiastic lover of nature, and interested a large number of people in tress, plants and shrubbery through their poetic language and descriptions of the natural world.