Thomas Pakenham is the author of the critically acclaimed The Scramble for Africa, which won the WH Smith Award and the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award. He is also the author of The Mountains of Rasselas, The Boer War and The Year of Liberty. He lives in Co. Westmeath, Ireland, and is chairman of the Irish Tree Society. He plants trees both for profit and ornament. His first book on trees, Meetings with Remarkable Trees, first published in 1996, received international acclaim and was made into an often-repeated television series of the same name. Remarkable Trees of the World followed in 2002 and was an international bestseller.