Rachel Lichtenstein

C. J. Schüler

A Human History of the Great North Wood

Wood That Built London

St. Petersburg to Venice

Along the Amber Route

Amber has long been a desirable commodity, surrounded by legend and used to create dazzling artifacts. Fascinated, C. J. Schüler follows the historic Amber Route from St Petersburg to Venice through three millennia of history. As he explores empires and the former Iron Curtain, current politics and his own family's experience of persecution are never far from his mind.

St Petersburg to Venice

It is hard to imagine that the busy townscape of South London was once a great wood, stretching almost seven miles from Croydon to Deptford or that, scattered through the suburbs, from Dulwich to Norwood, a number of oak woodlands have survived since before the Norman Conquest. These woods were intensively managed for a thousand years, providing timber for construction, furniture and shipbuilding, and charcoal for London's blacksmiths, kilns and bakeries. Now they afford important green space, a vital habitat for small mammals, birds and insects. Drawing on a wealth of documents, historic maps and environmental evidence, The Wood That Built London charts the fortunes of the North Wood from its earliest times: its ecology, ownership, management, and the gradual encroachment of the metropolis.

C. J. Schüler

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