When the Plants Tell the Tales

The Story of Milk Witch & the Fir Tree

Picture 1: The Botanical Oracle by Siolo Thompson. Picture 2: My first attempt to write about dandelions in the first person (accompanied by my rather dog-eared copy of "I Am Joe's Body" by J.D. Ratcliff.) Picture 3: One of my very first Instagram posts in which I attempted to illustrate said "story."

In 1967 John D Ratcliff wrote an article for Reader’s Digest entitled “I Am Joe’s Heart”. Based on interviews with distinguished physicians, and containing marvellous lines such as “Joe almost never thinks of me -  which is good. I don't want him to become one of those neurotics who worry us both into real trouble,” it was the first in a fascinating series in which the author wrote about the organs of the body from a first-person perspective.

In 1999 I was gifted a book containing the full set of articles, which included accounts from the eye about how we see, and a story narrated by the womb about how babies are born. It was given to me by a friend who stumbled across a reference to it while watching the film Fight Club. In the film, the Narrator (who for copyright reasons calls himself Jack,) gives a nod to the articles with quotes like “I am Jack’s raging bile duct” and “I am Jack’s complete lack of surprise.”

At the time I remember getting really caught up with the idea of narrating the story of objects from a first person view-point, and was inspired to begin work on a series of short tales based on what plants and trees might say to us were they able to talk.

I have to admit I’d completely forgotten about this little project until last weekend.

While rooting around in the attic to dig out our Christmas tree, I found, stuffed in a box of old decorations, a tattered folder containing a bunch of yellowing papers, in amongst which was a short story about an unassuming plant that every person on the planet is acquainted with.

I’d love to know what you make of it….