Richard Mabey (born 20 February 1941) is a naturalist and author. Since 1988, he has written a regular column for BBC Wildlife magazine, and is on its advisory board.

Education

Mabey was educated at three independent schools, all in Berkhamsted, 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.

Biography

Mabey was born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire and now lives near Diss in Norfolk.

Mabey has also written on countryside and art issues for The Sunday Times, The Times, The Sunday Telegraph and the Countryman. A selection of these writings was compiled as the book Country Matters.

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.

His biography of the 18th-century English naturalist Gilbert White won the 1986 Whitbread Biography of the Year award.

In November 2007, Mabey debated the future of the English countryside with Nicholas Crane, Richard Girling, Sue Clifford and Bill Bryson as part of CPRE's annual Volunteers' Conference.

Mabey has suffered from depression and his book Nature Cure describes his experiences and recovery in the context of man's relationship with landscape and nature.

Bibliography

His books

• Pop Process (Hutchinson 1969)
• Pollution Handbook (Penguin Books 1974)
• 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)
• 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)
• The Flowers of May (with Caroline May, illustrator; Collins and Brown, 1990)
• A Nature Journal (with illustrations by Clare Roberts; Chatto, 1991)
• The Book of Nightingales
• Country Matters
• Flora Britannica
• The Flora of Hampshire (co-author)
• The Flowering of Britain
• Food for Free (Collins, 1972)
• The Frampton Flora
• Landlocked
• Mushrooms and Toadstools of Britain and Europe
• Plantcraft
• Roadside Wild Life Book
• The Secret Life of the New Forest (with Eric Ashby, illustrator)
• The Unofficial Countryside
• Whistling in the Dark: In Pursuit of the Nightingale
• The Wildwood (with Gareth Lovett Jones)
• The Yorkshire Dales (With landscape photographer Graham Nobles)
• Nature Cure (Chatto and Windus, 2005, ISBN 0-7011-7601-6)
• Birds Britannica (with Mark Cocker), Chatto, 2005 [76544]
• Fencing Paradise : Exploring the Gardens of Eden Eden Project Books, 2005 ISBN 1-903919-31-2
• Beechcombings. The Narratives of Trees. (2007) Chatto and Windus. London.

Children's books

• Street Flowers
• Oak and Company

Editorship

• Gardener's Labyrinth (Thomas Hill, OUP, 1987)
• Second Nature - British artists, writers, record Nature of UK (Jonathan Cape, 1984)
• The Oxford Book Of Nature Writing (OUP, 1999)

Introduction

• The Tree: A Celebration of Our Living Skyline, edited by Peter Wood, David & Charles, 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 Guardian, 18 June 2005)
• ITV Video interview with Richard Mabey, November 2008
• Diary of a country woman (The Guardian, 13 December 2008)
• "The Hedge Kid" (Interview in The Guardian, 22 December 2007)

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 Edgar in Norfolk during 2007, as part of The Environment Triptych (2008) along with heads of Mary Midgley and James Lovelock.

References