The Genius Of Trees

**LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2026**

’Sublime ... A true masterpiece’ DAILY TELEGRAPH, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

'Mind-blowing' GUARDIAN

‘Wondrous. Gives us trees as we've never seen them before’ ISABELLA TREE, author of Wilding

**A TELEGRAPH, COUNTRY LIFE, NEW YORKER and CRITIC BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025**

The extraordinary story of the inventive and astonishing ways trees have shaped our natural world.

Over hundreds of millions of years, from the prehistoric forests to those standing tall over us today, trees have evolved to sculpt the environments. They split rock, change sex, spin carbon, and manipulate bacteria, animals and even humankind to achieve their ends and shape the natural world.

In The Genius of Trees, Harriet Rix takes us on a mind-expanding, globe-spanning journey into the remarkable inner lives of trees. For the first time, we see trees not as victims, but as powerful agents of change in a grand ecological narrative – as leading actors in the great drama of life on earth who have transformed our planet and offer us hope for its future.

‘Exceptional ... Changes our entire view of trees’ ROBIN LANE FOX, Financial Times Gardening Columnist

'Full of wonder and revelation' SUE STUART-SMITH, author of The Well Gardened Mind

'Captivating' COUNTRY LIFE

'Profoundly inventive' INDEPENDENT

'A magisterial tour de force - destined to become a classic' BEN RAWLENCE, author of The Treeline

Harriet Rix is a tree science consultant and writer. She was formerly based at the Tree Council where she supported Defra in researching tree diseases and urban tree strategies. Before joining the tree sector, she worked in landmine clearance in the Middle East. She acted as scientific advisor on Adrian Grenier's climate documentary, was secretary of Hedgelink and is trustee of the Iraqi environmental charity Hasar.


Rix holds a biochemistry degree from the University of Oxford and an MPhil in the history and philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge. She was a London Library Emerging Writer, and her writing and photography has been published in the Financial Times, London Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement and more. The Genius of Trees is her first book.