It's the little things in life: What's driving a bonsai boom in Britain? 5357501.jpg

John Trott (with a Ginko balboa tree)was 13 when he saw his first bonsai tree in Shepton Mallet, Somerset. It was 1969, and he was hooked. 'There was a private Japanese garden on the lane where I used to walk the dog,' he says. 'It wasn't open to the public, and had been there since before the First World War.' His first tree was an ash, but there were so few books about the subject that he had to teach himself the art. He joined a Bristol group of enthusiasts in the mid-1970s, and his hobby 'spiralled' to become his profession: he set up Mendip Bonsai Studio in 1994, and is now a leading dealer, owning a nursery in Shepton Mallet. 'There was once reputedly a $1m tree in Japan,' he says. 'It had been in the emperor's collection.' His own business is more modest, though he owns 'hundreds' of trees. His favourite is still his first, from 43 years ago. 'It's nothing really, when you look at it. But that's the one I still hold close to my heart.'

Dan Burn-Forti