Award-Winning Nature Essay Turns Out to Be About Author's Divorce

The Naturalists' Literary Prize has been awarded to Philip Ashmore for his essay 'The Patient Yew,' a 5,000-word meditation on the ancient yew tree in the churchyard of St. Dunstan's, which judges praised for its 'profound sensitivity to the quiet endurance of the natural world.' Ashmore's ex-wife, Caroline, has described the essay as 'a thinly veiled account of our marriage, with me cast as Dutch elm disease.' The essay, which opens with a reflection on how the yew 'stands alone in the churchyard, its branches reaching toward a sky that offers nothing in return,' proceeds through extended metaphors involving 'roots that were once intertwined but have grown in separate directions' and 'the slow decay of heartwood that was once thought to be eternal.' 'The passage about the parasitic ivy is clearly about my mother,' Caroline noted. 'And the section where he describes the yew shedding its bark in long painful strips is absolutely about the proceedings with the solicitor.' Judging panel chair Dr. Margaret Canopy defended the selection. 'We evaluated the essay purely on its literary and naturalistic merit,' she said. 'The fact that it also appears to be a detailed chronicle of a marital dissolution is, from our perspective, incidental. The descriptions of bark texture are superb.' Ashmore himself declined to comment on the autobiographical elements, stating only that 'nature is a mirror' and that the yew tree 'continues to grow, as we all must, even in inhospitable soil.' Caroline has submitted her own essay, titled 'The Strangling Fig,' to next year's competition.