Falmouth Lecturer Wyl Menmuir releases new book: The Heart of the Woods

From the award-winning author of The Draw of The Sea, a calming collection of essays on the ways we relate to trees and woodlands by Creative Writing BA and Professional Writing MA lecturer, Wyl Menmuir. 

Our lives are intimately intertwined with those of the trees and woodlands around us. Throughout history, trees have determined the tools we use, the boats we build, the stories we tell about ourselves and the world, the songs we sing, and some of our most important rituals. 

In this journey deep into the woods, award-winning writer Wyl Menmuir travels the length and breadth of Britain and Ireland to meet the people who plant trees, the ecologists who study them, those who shape beautiful objects and tools from wood, and those who use it to help others. Wyl explores what we get out of spending our time around trees, the ways in which the enduring relationship between humans and trees has changed over time, and how our future is interconnected with theirs. Written in close collaboration with makers, crafters, bodgers, woodsmen and women, The Heart of the Woods is a window into the joys and frustrations of working with a living material, and the stories of their crafts and skills.

Wyl Menmuir is a novelist, editor and literary consultant. He is the author of the Man-Booker nominated The Many, and Fox Fires, and his first full-length non-fiction book, The Draw of the Sea, won the Roger Deakin Award from the Society of Authors. A former journalist, Wyl has written for Radio 4’s Open Book, the Guardian, the Observer, and the journal Elementum. Born in Stockport, he now lives in Cornwall with his wife and two children. He is co-creator of the Cornish writing centre The Writers’ Block, works with the Arvon Foundation and the National Literacy Trust, and lectures on creative writing at Falmouth University. When he is not writing, Wyl enjoys messing around in boats.

Wyl is a lecturer on our Creative Writing BA(Hons) and Professional Writing MA.