Richard Mabey
Encyclopedia
Richard Mabey is a naturalist
and author.
He has been called by The Times
'Britain's greatest living nature writer'. Among his acclaimed publications are Food for Free, The Unofficial Countryside and The Common Ground, as well as his study of the nightingale, Whistling in the Dark. His book about Gilbert White
won the 1986 Whitbread Biography of the Year. Richard Mabey devised, researched and wrote the ground breaking bestseller Flora Britannica, which won the British Book Awards’ Illustrated Book of the Year and the Botanical Society of the British Isles’ President’s Award and was runner-up for the BP Natural World Book Prize.
Between 2000 and 2002 Mabey suffered with depression and his book Nature Cure, which describes his experiences and recovery in the context of man’s relationship with landscape and nature, was short-listed for three major literary awards, the Whitbread Biography of the Year, the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize for evoking the spirit of place and the J.R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography.
Richard Mabey contributes frequently to BBC radio
. ‘The Scientist and the Romantic', a series of five essays in which he discussed his lifelong relationship with science and the natural environment, were broadcast on Radio 3
in 2009.
He also wrote and narrated the 1996 BBC
television series Postcards from the Country, for whose eight, 40- minute episodes he was series producer
, as well as being the producer- director
on four. His books The Unofficial Countryside and The Flowering of Britain were also made into BBC TV series. He made films for the BBC
on Kew Gardens and The Yorkshire Dales.
In the 1980s he sat on the UK government’s advisory body, the Nature Conservancy Council
. He has been awarded two Leverhulme Fellowships, and honorary doctorates by St Andrews and Essex universities for his contributions to nature writing. He was appointed to the Civil List in 2008 for services to literature. He is a Director of the arts and conservation charity Common Ground, Vice-President of the Open Spaces Society and Patron of the John Clare
Society.
Mabey has also written on countryside and art issues for The Times
, The Guardian
, The Independent
, Granta
and Resurgence
. A selection of these writings was compiled as the book Country Matters. He has written a personal column in BBC Wildlife
magazine since 1984.
, Hertfordshire. The first was at Rothesay School, followed by Berkhamsted Preparatory School and then Berkhamsted School. He then went to St. Catherine's College at the University of Oxford
where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
. He became a full-time writer in 1974. He spent most of his life among the beechwoods of the Chilterns. He now lives in Norfolk
, in the Waveney
Valley.
in Norfolk during 2007, as part of The Environment Triptych (2008) along with heads of Mary Midgley
and James Lovelock
.
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
and author.
He has been called by The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
'Britain's greatest living nature writer'. Among his acclaimed publications are Food for Free, The Unofficial Countryside and The Common Ground, as well as his study of the nightingale, Whistling in the Dark. His book about Gilbert White
Gilbert White
Gilbert White FRS was a pioneering English naturalist and ornithologist.-Life:White was born in his grandfather's vicarage at Selborne in Hampshire. He was educated at the Holy Ghost School and by a private tutor in Basingstoke before going to Oriel College, Oxford...
won the 1986 Whitbread Biography of the Year. Richard Mabey devised, researched and wrote the ground breaking bestseller Flora Britannica, which won the British Book Awards’ Illustrated Book of the Year and the Botanical Society of the British Isles’ President’s Award and was runner-up for the BP Natural World Book Prize.
Between 2000 and 2002 Mabey suffered with depression and his book Nature Cure, which describes his experiences and recovery in the context of man’s relationship with landscape and nature, was short-listed for three major literary awards, the Whitbread Biography of the Year, the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize for evoking the spirit of place and the J.R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography.
Richard Mabey contributes frequently to BBC radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
. ‘The Scientist and the Romantic', a series of five essays in which he discussed his lifelong relationship with science and the natural environment, were broadcast on Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
in 2009.
He also wrote and narrated the 1996 BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
television series Postcards from the Country, for whose eight, 40- minute episodes he was series producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
, as well as being the producer- director
Television director
A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...
on four. His books The Unofficial Countryside and The Flowering of Britain were also made into BBC TV series. He made films for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
on Kew Gardens and The Yorkshire Dales.
In the 1980s he sat on the UK government’s advisory body, the Nature Conservancy Council
Nature Conservancy Council
The Nature Conservancy Council was a United Kingdom government agency responsible for designating and managing National Nature Reserves and other nature conservation areas in Great Britain between 1973 and 1991 ....
. He has been awarded two Leverhulme Fellowships, and honorary doctorates by St Andrews and Essex universities for his contributions to nature writing. He was appointed to the Civil List in 2008 for services to literature. He is a Director of the arts and conservation charity Common Ground, Vice-President of the Open Spaces Society and Patron of the John Clare
John Clare
John Clare was an English poet, born the son of a farm labourer who came to be known for his celebratory representations of the English countryside and his lamentation of its disruption. His poetry underwent a major re-evaluation in the late 20th century and he is often now considered to be among...
Society.
Mabey has also written on countryside and art issues for The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, Granta
Granta
Granta is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centers on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make real." In 2007, The Observer stated, "In its blend of...
and Resurgence
Resurgence
Resurgence is a British bi-monthly magazine which has been described as the artistic and spiritual voice of the green movement in Great Britain. Resurgence was founded in the 1960s by John Papworth....
. A selection of these writings was compiled as the book Country Matters. He has written a personal column in BBC Wildlife
BBC Wildlife
BBC Wildlife is a British glossy, all-colour, monthly magazine about wildlife, founded by BBC Worldwide and published through the BBC Magazines Bristol division, also trading as Bristol Magazines Ltd....
magazine since 1984.
Education
Mabey was educated at three independent schools, all in BerkhamstedBerkhamsted
-Climate:Berkhamsted experiences an oceanic climate similar to almost all of the United Kingdom.-Castle:...
, Hertfordshire. The first was at Rothesay School, followed by Berkhamsted Preparatory School and then Berkhamsted School. He then went to St. Catherine's College at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
Biography
After education at Oxford, Richard Mabey worked as a lecturer in Social Studies in Further Education, then as a Senior Editor at Penguin BooksPenguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
. He became a full-time writer in 1974. He spent most of his life among the beechwoods of the Chilterns. He now lives in Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, in the Waveney
River Waveney
The Waveney is a river which forms the border between Suffolk and Norfolk, England, for much of its length within The Broads.-Course:The source of the River Waveney is a ditch on the east side of the B1113 road between the villages of Redgrave, Suffolk and South Lopham, Norfolk...
Valley.
Portraits of Mabey
The National Portrait Gallery has a 1984 bromide print of Richard Mabey by Mark Gerson. Mabey agreed to sit for sculptor Jon EdgarJon Edgar
Jon Edgar is a British artist born in Rustington, West Sussex in 1968, the grandson of British cartoonist Brian White. He direct-carves in wood and stone using methods of improvisation, and works in clay.-Biography:...
in Norfolk during 2007, as part of The Environment Triptych (2008) along with heads of Mary Midgley
Mary Midgley
Mary Midgley, née Scrutton , is an English moral philosopher. She was a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Newcastle University and is known for her work on science, ethics and animal rights. She wrote her first book, Beast And Man: The Roots of Human Nature , when she was in her fifties...
and James Lovelock
James Lovelock
James Lovelock, CH, CBE, FRS is an independent scientist, environmentalist and futurologist who lives in Devon, England. He is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the biosphere is a self-regulating entity with the capacity to keep our planet healthy by controlling...
.
Books
- Food for Free (Collins, 1972)
- The Unofficial Countryside, 1973
- Pollution Handbook (Penguin Books 1974)
- Roadside Wildlife Book, 1975
- Plants with a Purpose (Collins, 1977)
- Plants with a Purpose (Fontana 1979)
- The Common Ground (Hutchinson, 1980)
- The Flowering of Britain (Hutchinson, 1980)
- Back to the roots (with Francesca Greenoak; Arena, 1983)
- In a Green Shade (Hutchinson, 1983)
- The Frampton Flora, 1985
- Gilbert White (Ebury Press, 1986)
- The New Age Herbalist (w. Michael McIntyre; Prentice Hall 1988)
- The Flowering of Kew (Ebury Press; 1988)
- The Flowering of Britain: revised edition (Chatto and Windus, 1989)
- Home Country (Century, 1990)
- A Nature Journal (with illustrations by Clare Roberts; Chatto, 1991)
- The Book of Nightingales
- Country Matters
- The Flora of Hampshire (co-author)
- The Frampton Flora
- Landlocked, 1994
- Flora Britannica, 1996
- Mushrooms and Toadstools of Britain and Europe
- Plantcraft
- Whistling in the Dark: In Pursuit of the Nightingale, 1993
- The Wildwood (with Gareth Lovett Jones)
- Selected Writings, 1999
- Nature Cure (Chatto and Windus, 2005, ISBN 0-7011-7601-6)
- Fencing Paradise : Exploring the Gardens of Eden Eden Project BooksEden ProjectThe Eden Project is a visitor attraction in Cornwall in the United Kingdom, including the world's largest greenhouse. Inside the artificial biomes are plants that are collected from all around the world....
, 2005 ISBN 1-903919-31-2 - Beechcombings. The Narratives of Trees, (2007) Chatto and Windus. London.
- The Full English Cassoulet, 2008
- The Barley Bird, 2010
- A Brush with Nature, 2010
- Weeds, 2010
Editions, Co-Authorship, Etc.
- Class (ed.), 1968
- The Natural History of Selborne (ed.), Penguin, 1977
- In Search of Food (with David Mabey)
- Cold Comforts, 1983
- Second Nature (ed.), 1984
- NHS Everyman (ed.), 1993
- Landscape with Figures: an anthology of Richard Jeffries (ed.), 1986-9
- Back to the Roots (with Francesca Greenoak), 1984
- Gardner’s Labyrinth (ed.)
- The Flowers of May (with Caroline May, illustrator; Collins and Brown, 1990)
- Secret Life of the New Forest (with Eric Ashby, photographer)
- The Oxford Book of Nature Writing, 1995
- The Yorkshire Dales (With landscape photographer Graham Nobles)
- Birds BritannicaBirds BritannicaBirds Britannica is book by Mark Cocker and Richard Mabey, about the birds of the United Kingdom, and a sister volume to Mabey's 1996 Flora Britannica, about British plants...
(with Mark CockerMark CockerMark Cocker is a British author and naturalist. He lives and works deep in the Norfolk countryside with his wife Mary Muir and two daughters in claxton...
), ChattoChattoChatto may refer to:* Chatto , Chiricahua Apache chief* Beth Chatto , plantswoman, garden designer and author* Virendranath Chattopadhyaya , prominent Bengali Indian revolutionary...
, 2005 http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/birdsbritannica/ - Lark Rise to Candleford (intro.), 2009
- Bugs Britannica (with Peter Marren), 2010
- The Garden of Weeds, 2010
- The Snow Leopard (intro.), 2010
Educational and Children’s
- Pop Process (Hutchinson 1969)
- Behind the Scene
- Food
- The Pollution Handbook
- Children in Primary School
- Street Flowers
- Oak and Co.
Editorship
- Gardener's Labyrinth (Thomas Hill, OUP, 1987)
- Second Nature - British artists, writers, record Nature of UK (Jonathan CapeJonathan CapeJonathan Cape was a London-based publisher founded in 1919 as "Page & Co" by Herbert Jonathan Cape , formerly a manager at Duckworth who had worked his way up from a position of bookshop errand boy. Cape brought with him the rights to cheap editions of the popular author Elinor Glyn and sales of...
, 1984) - The Oxford Book Of Nature Writing (OUP, 1999)
Introduction
- The Tree: A Celebration of Our Living Skyline, edited by Peter Wood, David & CharlesDavid & CharlesDavid & Charles is a publisher. The company was founded - and is still based - in the market town of Newton Abbot, in Devon, UK, on 1 April 1960 by David St John Thomas and Charles Hadfield. It first made its name publishing titles on Britain's canals and railways...
, 1993), ISBN 0-7153-9481-9 - An Exaltation Of Skylarks, compiled by Stewart Beer, SMH Books, (1995), ISBN 0-9512619-7-5
Articles
- The terrible lesson of the bee orchid (The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 18 June 2005) - ITV Video interview with Richard Mabey, November 2008
- Diary of a country woman (The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 13 December 2008) - "The Hedge Kid" (Interview in The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 22 December 2007) - Why We Must Learn to Love Weeds (The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, 4 June 2011)