The oak book?

Remains of the hybrid white oak (the 'three worlds oak') in Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne

"What happened to the oak book?" is a question I've been asked a few times while spruking The Sceptical Botanist. Fair enough too. I become rather obsessed with oaks during the COVID-19 pandemic, threatening to turn that obsession into a book.

Well, that book is now in production with a London-based publisher, Reaktion Books. Copy editing is complete and I'm waiting for the first page proofs.

As part of their Botanical series, Reaktion Books have already published one book on oaks - Oak by Peter Young. You may have read or heard about the most recent book in this series, Eucalyptus, by Steve Hopper.

My book, The Three Worlds Oak, is a little different. No so much 'an integration of horticultural and botanical writing with a broader account of the cultural and social impact of trees, plants and flowers', as the contributions to this series are described, but - as I've sometimes described my book - a memoir of a genus.

Or, as the draft text for Reaktion Book's 2026 catalogue begins: "A dying hybrid oak in Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens sets off on an imaginative search for its parents, and in doing so reveals the extraordinary diversity of the genus Quercus". 

That search begins in Sweden, with the first botanical naming of oaks. From there to southern Europe and north Africa, across Russia to the Americas and Asia, before finishing in Oak Lawn, in Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 

Along the way we find there is more to the genus Quercus than the familiar English and cork oaks. In fact, another 433 species, including 160 from Mexico alone!

Chicharron oak (Quercus crassifolia) from Mexico and Guatemala

And not only do oaks survive at 4000 metres above sea level, in the Himalaya, but these high-altitude species are all part of the 'holm/holly oak group', meaning they are closely related to holly oak found around the Mediterranean.

As to Australia, until European settlement there were no oaks growing here (silky oak and she oak are not species of Quercus...). In fact, only a handful of species grow naturally anywhere south of the equator, in Java.

All that and more - including another 33 watercolor paintings by Lynda Entwisle - to look forward to in September 2026.

Many-cupped oak (Quercus lamellosa), a 'ring-cupped oak' from the Himalaya and nearby mountains (but found well below 4000 metres above sea level...)

As to what comes after that, I've just submitted the manuscript for a book with the working title of The Flower: A Personal Perspective to CSIRO Publishing. I can answer questions about its whereabouts when it comes time to market the oak book.