A few years ago, I visited my old college friend, Derek Taylor, at his home in Stow-on-the-Wold. During one of our country walks, we started musing about all the English names for ‘wood’ (e.g. hurst, spinney, copse). The idea stuck in my mind, and for a long time I wondered how all those words might be celebrated. This spring, I concluded my research and composition, and the result can be seen in a new section of this website, Verses: The EnglishNamesForWood. I dedicated this piece to the Woodland Trust, an organization in the UK dedicated to the preservation of trees and woodland. It has been a bit of a struggle getting any response from this group, but I am hopeful that someone from the charity may actually read my piece in the near future.
Derek has recently published a very entertaining book, A Horse in the Bathroom, and I encourage any reader of this passage to visit his website athttp://www.derekjtaylorbooks.com/ , and then, of course, buy the book. (June 30, 2012)