Richard Mabey
Richard Mabey | |
|---|---|
| Born | Richard Thomas Mabey 20 February 1941 |
| Education |
|
| Alma mater | St Catherine's College, University of Oxford |
| Occupation(s) | Writer and broadcaster |
| Awards |
|
Richard Thomas Mabey (born 20 February 1941) is a writer and broadcaster, chiefly on the relations between nature and culture.
Education
Mabey was educated at three independent schools, all in
Philosophy, Politics and Economics
.
Life and work
After Oxford, Mabey worked as a lecturer in Social Studies in Further Education at
Waveney Valley in Norfolk, with his partner Polly Lavender,[2][3] and retreats to a boat on the Norfolk Broads
.
He appeared in a 1975 episode of the
Between 1982 and 1986 he sat on the UK government's advisory body, the Nature Conservancy Council. Mabey writes regularly for The Guardian, the New Statesman, The Times and Granta. A selection of these writings was compiled as the book Country Matters. He has written a personal column in BBC Wildlife magazine since 1984, and a selection of these columns has been published as A Brush with Nature.
Between 2000 and 2002 Mabey suffered from depression, and his book Nature Cure, describing his experiences and recovery in the context of man's relationship with landscape and nature, was short-listed for three major literary awards: the
J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography
.
He has edited and introduced editions of
Frays Island in the River Colne.[9]
Awards and distinctions
Mabey has been awarded two Leverhulme Fellowships, and honorary doctorates by St Andrews, Essex and East Anglia for his contributions to
Civil List Pension in 2008 for services to literature. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2011. He is a Trustee of the arts and conservation charity Common Ground, vice-president of the Open Spaces Society, Patron of the John Clare Society and President of the Waveney and Blythe Arts.[citation needed
]
His life of
BP Natural World Book Prize.[citation needed
]
He was a guest on the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs in 1997.[11]
Portraits
The National Portrait Gallery has a 1984 bromide print of Richard Mabey by Mark Gerson.[12] Mabey sat for sculptor Jon Edgar in Norfolk during 2007, as part of the Environment Triptych (2008)[13] along with Mary Midgley and James Lovelock.
Bibliography
- —— (1972). Food for Free. Collins.
- —— (1973). The Unofficial Countryside. Collins. ISBN 978-0002118552.
- —— (1974). Pollution Handbook. Penguin.
- —— (1977). Plants with a Purpose. Collins.
- —— (1978). The Roadside Wildlife Book. ISBN 978-0722157114.
- —— (1980). The Common Ground: A Place for Nature in Britain's Future?. ISBN 978-0091391706.
- —— (1983). Back to the Roots. Arena. ISBN 978-0099314509. (with Francesca Greenoak)
- —— (1983). In a Green Shade. Hutchinson.
- —— (1985). The Frampton Flora. Century. ISBN 978-0712608596.
- —— (1986). Gilbert White. Ebury. 2007 edition. University of Virginia Press.[14]
- —— (1988). The Flowering of Kew. ISBN 978-0712611343.
- —— (1988). The New Age Herbalist. Prentice Hall. (with Michael McIntyre)
- —— (1990). The Flowers of May. ISBN 978-1855850309.
- —— (1990). Home Country. ISBN 978-0712637206.
- —— (1991). A Nature Journal. ISBN 978-0701135072. (with illustrations by Clare Roberts)
- —— (1993). The Wildwood, The: In Search of Britain's Ancient Forests. Arum. ISBN 978-1854102423. - photography by Gareth Lovett Jones
- —— (1993). Whistling in the Dark: In Pursuit of the Nightingale. ISBN 978-1856191760.
- —— (1994). Landlocked: In Pursuit of the Wild. Sinclair-Stevenson. ISBN 978-1856194327.
- —— (1996). Flora Britannica. Chatto & Windus. ISBN 978-1856193771.
- —— (1996). The Flora of Hampshire. Harley Books. (co-author)
- —— (1999). Country Matters: Selected Writings.
- —— (2005). Nature Cure. Chatto & Windus. ISBN 978-0701176013.
- —— (2006). Fencing Paradise: The Uses And Abuses of Plants. ISBN 978-1903919323.
- —— (2008). The Full English Cassoulet: Making Do in the Kitchen. Chatto & Windus. ISBN 978-0701182533.
- —— (2007). Beechcombings: The Narratives of Trees. Chatto & Windus. ISBN 978-1856197335.
- —— (2010). A Brush with Nature.
- —— (2010). Weeds: The Story of Outlaw Plants. ISBN 978-1846680762.
- —— (2010). The Barley Bird: Notes on the Suffolk Nightingale. Profile.
- —— (2011). The Perfumier and the Stinkhorn. ISBN 978-1846684074.
- —— (2013). Turned Out Nice Again: On Living With the Weather. Profile. ISBN 978-1781250525.
- —— (2013). The Ash and the Beech: The Drama of Woodland Change. Vintage. ISBN 978-0099587231.
- —— (2016). The Cabaret of Plants: Forty Thousand Years of Plant Life and the Human Imagination. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0393239973.
- —— (2019). Turning The Boat For Home - A Life Writing About Nature. Penguin Random House. ISBN 978-0701181086.
Contributions
- ISBN 978-0192825803. (Editor)
- ISBN 978-0701169077. (Editor)
- Marren, Peter (2010). Bugs Britannica. ISBN 978-0701181802. (Editor)
- ISBN 978-1848221024.
- 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
- The Oxford Book of Nature Writing, 1995
- The Yorkshire Dales (with landscape photographer Graham Nobles)
- The Garden of Weeds, 2010
Introductions and forewords
- The Snow Leopard, ISBN 009977111X
- ISBN 0701134046.
- The Tree: A Celebration of Our Living Skyline, edited by Peter Wood, ISBN 0-7153-9481-9
- Nonis, U; Paul Sterry (1993). Mushrooms & toadstools of Britain and Europe. David & Charles. ISBN 9780715301555.
- An Exaltation of Skylarks, compiled by Stewart Beer, SMH Books, (1995), ISBN 0-9512619-7-5
- Lark Rise to Candleford (2009 edition)
- Wilkinson, David (2013). Keeping the Barbarians at Bay: The Last Years of Kenneth Allsop, Green Pioneer. Signal. ISBN 978-1908493842.
Educational and children's books
- Pop Process (Hutchinson 1969)
- Behind the Scene
- Food
- Children in Primary School
- —— (1976). Street Flowers. Viking.
- Oak and Co.
Films
- Postcards from the Country, BBC, 1996
- Richard Mabey's 2011 "Botanical Busk" tour (of the London canals, commissioned by the Floating Cinema)[15]
Radio
- The Essay: "The Scientist and the Romantic", BBC Radio 3 (5 episodes, 2009)[16]
- Mabey in the Wild, BBC Radio 4 (2 series, 2011-)[17]
- The Essay: "Changing Climates", BBC Radio 3 (5 episodes, 2013)[18]
References
- ^ Laing, Olivia (22 December 2007). "A life in writing: Richard Mabey". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
- ^ "Roydon". Literary Norfolk. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
- ^ Adams, Tim (15 November 2015). "Richard Mabey: 'I always argued against the idea that foraging was new'". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
- ^ a b Countryfile. 14 October 2012. BBC.
- ^ a b "In Deepest Britain (1975)". BFI. Archived from the original on 1 June 2009. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
- BBC Genome. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
- BBC Genome. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
- BBC Genome. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
- ^ a b "Frays Island and Mabey's Meadow". London Wildlife Trust. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
- ^ "Wild London" (PDF). London Wildlife Trust. Summer 2009. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
- ^ "BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Richard Mabey". BBC. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
- ^ "National Portrait Gallery - Large Image - NPG x25208; Richard Thomas Mabey". Npg.org.uk. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-9558675-0-7.
- .
- ^ "Richard Mabey's 2011 'Botanical Busk' tour". Retrieved 8 October 2012.
- ^ "The Essay: The Scientist and the Romantic". BBC Radio 3. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
- ^ "Mabey in the Wild". BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
- ^ "The Essay: Changing Climates". BBC Radio 3. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
External links
- Richard Mabey on Journalisted
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
