Judges plant native trees with the Woodland Trust

Trees planted in Heartwood Forest

15 March 2011

On Tuesday 15th March, the judges of the 2010 Man Booker Prize for Fiction planted native broadleaf trees in Heartwood Forest - an 850 acre Hertfordshire site set to become England's largest new native forest.

For the third year running, the Man Booker Prize is collaborating with the Woodland Trust over this symbolic gesture to compensate for the trees felled in order to produce the hundred-plus books submitted for the prize each year.

The judges planted 13 hazel trees in the wood near St Albans in Hertfordshire as a living commemoration of the ‘Booker Dozen' - the 13 titles chosen for that year's longlist from which Howard Jacobson's novel The Finkler Question was chosen as winner.

Ion Trewin, Literary Director of the Man Booker Prizes joined three of the judges - Rosie Blau, former Literary Editor of the Financial Times; Deborah Bull, formerly a dancer, now Creative Director of the Royal Opera House as well as a writer and broadcaster and Tom Sutcliffe, journalist, broadcaster.

In 2010, 138 books were submitted for the prize (including 14 titles called in by the judges), which was more than in any other year.

Ion Trewin comments, ‘I'm delighted that for a third year the Man Booker judges have decided to put something back by planting new trees in the Heartwood Forest.'

Heartwood Forest is a woodland story set to run and run, according to the Woodland Trust. With around 200,000 of its proposed 650,000 native trees now planted, the forest will be a long term asset for the environment, local people and wildlife.

Laura Judson, Head of Regional Development at the Woodland Trust, comments, "This is the third chapter of our very welcome association with Man Booker. We hope that by teaming up with the prize we can illustrate the importance of conserving our native trees and woods - as well as doing our bit to create the largest new native woodland in England."

In this photograph - left to right: Tom Sutcliffe, judge; Ion Trewin, Literary Director, The Man Booker Prizes; Rosie Blau, judge; Deborah Bull, judge; Chris Hickman of Woodland Trust.

 

The Man Booker Prize Fiction at its finest