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Book of the Week

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Serialised book readings, featuring works from various genres

Serialised book readings, featuring works of non-fiction, biography, autobiography, travel, diaries, essays, humour and history

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Book of the Week: The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees

Robert Penn

Jo Coombs

Hannah Marshall

Book of the Week: The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees: Episode 3

The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees

Episode 3

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees, Episode 3

Robert Penn takes a piece of his ash tree to Britain's best-known wood turner.

Robert Penn takes a piece of his ash tree to Britain's best-known wood turner. Using this ancient craft, Robin attempts to form a nest of bowls - a tricky task.

In 2012, Robert Penn felled (and replanted) a great ash from a Welsh wood. He set out to explore the true value of the tree of which we have made the greatest and most varied use in human history. How many things can be made from one tree?

Over the next two years he travelled across Britain, to Europe and the USA, to the workshops and barns of a generation of craftsmen committed to working in wood. He watched them make over 45 artefacts and tools that have been in continual use for centuries, if not millennia.

Rob takes a carefully selected log to Robin Wood, Britain's best-known wood-turner. He has agreed to use it to form a nest of three bowls - a difficult task, "the Holy grail of turning". As he works the wood in his Peak District cow shed, he's following a craft which dates back to ancient times - a beautifully decorated Celtic ash bowl was found at the Iron Age site of Glastonbury Lake village. And from the fall of the Roman Empire, a culture of woodware thrived in Britain. For at least a thousand years from AD 500, every man and woman in Europe, from kings and queens to paupers and serfs, ate and drank each day from a wooden vessel turned on a lathe.

This is a tale about the joy of making things in wood, of its touch and smell, its many uses, and the resonant, calming effect of running our hands along a wooden surface. It is a celebration of man's close relationship with this greatest of natural materials and a reminder of the value of things made by hand and made to last.

Abridged by Jo Coombs
Produced by Hannah Marshall
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Robert Penn decides to fell a great ash and find out how many uses there are for one tree.

Robert Penn decides to fell a great ash and find out how many uses there are for one tree. Abridged by Jo Coombs

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