“I would suggest planting a white oak with the care and attention you would give to locating a new city…,” says Nancy Ross Hugo. And as I look out at the white oaks in the woods outside my window, crowded there by nature, not one has the solid majesty of the tree in Robert Llewellyn’s photograph – the only tree in an arable field.

This is a book whose photography is as elegant as so many of the trees it features, as specimens or in the intimate intricacy of their flowers, and is matched by appropriate elegance in the book’s design. The engaging and very personal text, is derived from enthusiasms for the trees in her and neighbor’s backyards and an inclination to look closely, reflect and ask searching questions.

Brits may be bewildered by some of the common names - but don’t worry about it.

Seeing Trees by Nancy Ross Hugo, with photography by Robert Llewellyn, is published by Timber Press.

• Altogether elegant in its design, photography and writing
• You’ll never look at a tree in quite the same way again