Internationally renowned author, historian and arborist Thomas Pakenham of Tullynally Castle, Castlepollard, Co Westmeath, will talk about his fascinating relationship with trees. Now aged 82, the 8th Earl of Longford – although he doesn’t use his title, for reasons that he will explain in his talk in Killarney – is delightful company; funny, charming, kind, full of wit and boldness. Knowledgeable on everything from Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad to Samuel Johnson and the habits of ducks, history and trees are really his thing.

He has written some nine books, neatly divided between the two topics. ‘After [writing] The Year of Liberty, The Boer War and The Scramble for Africa, published in 1969, 1979 and 1991, and all still seminal history books, for their style and readability as much as their breadth, Thomas turned his attention to trees, writing the much-loved trilogy (or tree-logy as he likes to call it), Meetings With Remarkable Trees, Remarkable Trees of the World and In Search Of Remarkable Trees, and founded the Irish Tree Society in 1990.

His latest book, The Company of Trees, is subtitled A Year In A Lifetime’s Quest, and covers one year at Tullynally – “I needed some framework to give it an element of narrative, so I gave it arbitrarily one year, 2013, which proved to be a year where many trees blew down in the storms” – mixed in with reminisces about his trips to Eastern Patagonia, the Himalayas, South West China. It is, like all his books, beautifully written and illustrated, full of anecdotes and observations and, that rare thing, personality.’ (Excerpt taken from Irish Independent Friday 13 November 2015)