John Talbot White (5 January 1925 – 22 April 1983) was a British lecturer, naturalist, and writer. He was known for his contributions to ''The Guardian's'' Country Diary and for his books about the

topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...

and natural history of

South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, first level of International Territorial Level, ITL for Statistics, statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of england, ...

and particularly the county of

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. He committed suicide after becoming depressed following redundancy, but not before posting his last column to ''The Guardian''.

Early life

John Talbot White was born in

Lewisham Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified i ...

on 5 January 1925, one of three sons of a tobacco sampler. He described his mother Elizabeth as having "

green fingers ''Green Fingers'' is a 1947 British drama film directed by John Harlow and starring Robert Beatty, Carol Raye and Nova Pilbeam. The film title does not use the term green fingers in its normal context, alluding to an untaught and natural skil ...

". As a boy he developed a deep interest in the countryside around London that was reinforced when he was evacuated to the Kent/Sussex border during the Second World War."Obituary: Country writer", ''The Guardian'', 27 April 1983, p. 2. He served in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

as a

petty officer A petty officer (PO) is a non-commissioned officer in many navies and is given the NATO rank denotation OR-5 or OR-6. In many nations, they are typically equal to a sergeant in comparison to other military branches. Often they may be superior ...

for the last two years of the war and saw action in Greece and the Aegean.

Writing

White lived and worked for many years in

Northumbria la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria , common_name = Northumbria , status = State , status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...

in the north of EnglandWhite, John Talbot. (1978) ''The Countryman's Guide to the South-east''. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Dedication and cover notes. and his early published works were of a literary type for the private Tragara Press in Edinburgh. Later he turned to British topographical and natural history subjects of the South East of England and particularly the county of Kent, becoming a stalwart contributor to ''The Guardian's'' Country Diary column. His writing included educational works and two volumes for The Regions of Britain series, one on the Scottish borders (1973) and another on the Kent, Surrey and Sussex area (1977). In 1978, his ''Countryman's Guide to the South-East'' was praised in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' as the work of a "precise naturalist". George Seddon, reviewing the book for ''The Guardian'', described White as having the ideal qualities of a country diarist of an "observant pair of eyes, infectious enthusiasm, and an unaffected prose style" as he chronicled the Kent marshes in January, the

Sussex Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the east. ...

in March, and the Surrey heaths in August. The cover was by

Rowland Hilder Rowland Frederick Hilder OBE (28 June 1905 – 21 April 1993) was an English landscape artist, and book illustrator. Early life He was born in New York to Roland and Kitty Hilder (née Fissenden). Following the outbreak of World War 1, Hild ...

. As well as describing seasonal changes, White was careful to place natural features in their historical contexts, acknowledging, for instance, that the hedgerow was an innovation by man, and that modern farm buildings that jarred with the landscape now would probably become as accepted as the

oast house An oast, oast house or hop kiln is a building designed for kilning (drying) hops as part of the brewing process. They can be found in most hop-growing (and former hop-growing) areas and are often good examples of vernacular architecture. Many re ...

with the passage of time. Similarly with hedgerows, White noted their varieties and historical background; tall, mainly hawthorn, hedges in Kent surrounding hop gardens that date from the introduction of hops in the Tudor period, and others that denoted the boundaries of Saxon parishes and included many different species such as blackthorn, guelder rose, hawthorn, and yew, and a similarly wide range of birds and other wildlife that lived in them or fed off their fruit. He wrote more on the hedgerow in his 1980 book of that title for which Eric Thomas provided the illustrations. The book tells the story of the hedgerow from before the Saxons to the twentieth century when it is threatened by modern farming methods.

Employment

He was employed as a lecturer in geography and natural history at

Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...

in London. In 1983, having no family responsibilities himself, he took redundancy from his job in order to save a younger man with a family from losing his job. Outside work, he sang and spoke Breton, French, Greek, and Italian.

Death and legacy

White died by suicide at 18 Greyladies Gardens,

Blackheath Blackheath may refer to: Places England *Blackheath, London, England ** Blackheath railway station **Hundred of Blackheath, Kent, an ancient hundred in the north west of the county of Kent, England *Blackheath, Surrey, England ** Hundred of Blackh ...

, London, on 22 April 1983, having taken anti-depressant pills and whisky. He was said at the inquest into his death to have become depressed following his redundancy and to have been anxious about problems with his home. His suicide note recorded that he had just posted his last column to ''The Guardian''."Country writer's suicide followed redundancy", ''The Guardian'', 27 April 1983, p. 2. It was published in the paper on 27 April on the subject of how a mouse escaped a

weasel Weasels are mammals of the genus ''Mustela'' of the family Mustelidae. The genus ''Mustela'' includes the least weasels, polecats, stoats, ferrets and European mink. Members of this genus are small, active predators, with long and slender bo ...

and its close observation of the struggle between the two was characteristic of White, as he told how the mouse escaped by being more nimble than the weasel, leaping "the ground flora like a hurdler", at one point jumping over the weasel's back, and on another meeting the weasel coming in the opposite direction as both ran past each other "like characters from a comic strip". He left an estate of £132,398.1983 Probate Calendar.
p. 10412. His last book, ''Country London'', was published posthumously in 1984.

Selected publications

White's publications include:British Library. 17 July 2019. * ''The Tattered Outlaw.'' Tragara Press, Edinburgh, 1957. (poems) * ''A Sequence for Modigliani.'' Tragara Press, Edinburgh, 1965. * ''Of Forests and Silence.'' Tragara Press, Edinburgh, 1965. (poems) * ''An Index to Lawrence Durrell's Reflections on a Marine Venus.'' Tragara Press, Edinburgh, 1968. * ''The Death of a King: Being extracts from contemporary accounts of the Battle of Branxton Moor, September, 1513, commonly known as Flodden Field, wherein was slain James IV, King of Scotland''. Tragara Press, Edinburgh, 1970. (Editor) * ''The Scottish Border and Northumberland: Berwickshire, Roxburghshire, Northumberland''. Eyre Methuen, 1973. ( The Regions of Britain) * ''A Country Diary: Kent''. Arthur J. Cassell, Sheerness, 1974. * ''Spotlight on Europe''. Macmillan, London, 1975. * ''Geography of the British Isles''. Heinemann Educational, London, 1976. (With Norman J. Graves) * ''The Parklands of Kent'', Arthur J. Cassell, Sheerness, 1976. * ''The South East, Down and Weald: Kent, Surrey and Sussex''. Eyre Methuen, London, 1977. (The Regions of Britain) * ''The Countryman's Guide to the South-East''. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1978. * ''Hedgerow''. Ash & Grant, London, 1980. Illustrated by Eric Thomas. Later editions Dorling Kindersley. * ''Country London''. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1984. (With Oliver Caldecott)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:White, John Talbot 1925 births 1983 deaths Drug-related suicides in England Academics of Goldsmiths, University of London People from Lewisham English naturalists English non-fiction outdoors writers Royal Navy personnel of World War II 20th-century English poets English geographers 20th-century naturalists 1983 suicides Alcohol-related deaths in England