It’s intriguing to find a book gathering its own stories besides the one contained between its covers

In 1948 D H Hardwick ordered a copy of Trees In Britain by L. F. J Brimble from WH Smith. It was to be sent to him in the Military Wing of Harefield County Hospital in Uxbridge.

In 2020, author Sarah Salway, recently discharged from hospital herself, came across that same copy of the book in a charity shop.  Having been seriously ill with silent hypoxia in the first wave of Covid 19, Sarah was learning to breathe again. She’d become fascinated by trees, the breathing they do for us, and used the book to learn to identify trees in her local park on her daily walks.

However, a further fascination came when a postcard fell out of the book revealing the details of Hardwick’s original order to W H Smith 72 years previously.

Feeling an affinity with the hospitalised Hardwick, Sarah began to research him and discovered he had a distinguished career as a pilot in the RAF in WW2. As she was emerging from her ‘battle’ with Covid 19, She was pleased to discover this man was a survivor of many missions.

Sarah wrote about this experience in ‘Learning To Breathe with Trees,’ the first essay Blue Door Press published in the anthology, Altogether Elsewhere.

Unbeknown to Sarah, the story of the book was about to have a new chapter.  It turns out that D H Hardwick was hero to another – his nephew Mike Hardwick. Mike was researching his uncle’s wartime career. His internet trawling led him to read Sarah’s essay on Blue Door Press. He contacted her via her website. They corresponded by email and spoke on the telephone.

Sarah learned much more about her tree book hero: the battles he’d survived, what an inspiring uncle he had been to the young Mike, the post-war life he’d led until his death in 1990.  In turn, Sarah returned the book and the postcard to Mike Hardwick, who is thrilled to discover that his hero, uncle Den, had such a positive effect on Sarah’s recovery. 

It goes to show the importance of putting your story out there, as Annabel Chown wrote in her recent piece. You never know – your story might find its way into someone else’s. I wonder if there are any descendants of L. J. F. Brimble – botanist and form editor of the journal, Nature – who might be pleased to discover the stories Trees In Britain has found its way into.

Pamela Johnson, August 2022