Richard Mabey
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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
Berkhamsted Berkhamsted ( ) is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, north-west of London. The town is a civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which is based in the neighbouring large new town ...
, Hertfordshire. The first was at Rothesay School, followed by Berkhamsted Preparatory School and then
Berkhamsted School Berkhamsted School is an independent day school in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England. The present school was formed in 1997 by the amalgamation of the original Berkhamsted School, founded in 1541 by John Incent, Dean of St Paul's Cathedral ...
. He then went to St Catherine's College at the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics.


Life and work

After Oxford, Mabey worked as a lecturer in Social Studies in Further Education at Dacorum College,
Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500. Developed after the Second World War as a new ...
, then as a senior editor at
Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.beechwoods of the Chilterns. He now lives in the Waveney Valley in Norfolk, with his partner Polly Lavender, and retreats to a boat on the Norfolk Broads. In the 1970s and 80s Mabey wrote and presented several television documentaries. He appeared in the 1975 BBC programme '' In Deepest Britain'', with John Gooders and other naturalists, giving an unscripted narration of the wildlife observed during a country walk. He wrote and narrated the 1996
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...
''Postcards from the Country'', for whose eight, 40-minute episodes he was series producer, as well as being the producer-
director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...
on four. The book of the series ''Postcards from the Country: living memories of the British countryside'' (by Peter Marren and Mike Birkhead) includes a foreword by Mabey. He made a film for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
on
Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its living collections include some of the ...
. His ''Unofficial Countryside'' and ''The Flowering of Britain'' were based on his books of the same names. ''White Rock, Black Water'' was a specially-written film about the limestone country of the
Yorkshire Dales The Yorkshire Dales is an upland area of the Pennines in the historic county of Yorkshire, England, most of it in the Yorkshire Dales National Park created in 1954. The Dales comprise river valleys and the hills rising from the Vale of York w ...
, and a
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
eight-part series – ''Back to the Roots'' – explored the role of plants in Britain's contemporary culture. In the 1990s he often appeared on the BBC's '' Country File''. Between 1982 and 1986 he sat on the UK government's advisory body, the
Nature Conservancy Council The Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) 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 (it did not cover Norther ...
. Mabey writes regularly for ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', the ''
New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...
'', ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' and ''
Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres 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 ma ...
''. A selection of these writings was compiled as the book ''Country Matters''. He has written a personal column in ''
BBC Wildlife ''BBC Wildlife'' is a British glossy, all-colour magazine about wildlife, operated and published by Immediate Media Company. It produces 13 issues a year. ''BBC Wildlife'' was launched in January 1963 as ''Animals Magazine'', edited by filmmaker ...
'' 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 Whitbread Biography of the Year, the Royal Society of Literature's
Ondaatje Prize The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize is an annual literary award given by the Royal Society of Literature. The £10,000 award is for a work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that evokes the "spirit of a place", and is written by someon ...
for evoking the spirit of place and the J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography. He has edited and introduced editions of
Richard Jefferies John Richard Jefferies (6 November 1848 – 14 August 1887) was an English nature writer, noted for his depiction of English rural life in essays, books of natural history, and novels. His childhood on a small Wiltshire farm had a great influ ...
,
Gilbert White Gilbert White FRS (18 July 1720 – 26 June 1793) was a " parson-naturalist", a pioneering English naturalist, ecologist, and ornithologist. He is best known for his ''Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne''. Life White was born on ...
,
Flora Thompson Flora Jane Thompson (née Timms; 5 December 1876 – 21 May 1947) was an English novelist and poet best known for her semi-autobiographical trilogy about the English countryside, ''Lark Rise to Candleford''. Early life and family Thompson ...
and
Peter Matthiessen Peter Matthiessen (May 22, 1927 – April 5, 2014) was an American novelist, naturalist, wilderness writer, zen teacher and CIA Operative. A co-founder of the literary magazine ''The Paris Review'', he was the only writer to have won the Nation ...
. His contributions to
BBC radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...
include "The Scientist and the Romantic", a series of five essays on his lifelong relationship with science and the natural environment broadcast in ''The Essay'' on Radio 3 in 2009, and ''Changing Climates'', on our everyday experience of living with the weather, in 2013. Mabey was the first president of the
London Wildlife Trust London Wildlife Trust (LWT), founded in 1981, is a local nature conservation charity for Greater London. It is one of 46 members of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (known as The Wildlife Trusts), each of which is a local nature conservatio ...
and later a vice-president; Mabey's Meadow, named for him by the London Wildlife Trust, was one of his favourite haunts, and is described in his book ''The Unofficial Countryside'' (1974). It provides the only access to Frays Island in the River Colne.


Awards and distinctions

Mabey has been awarded two Leverhulme Fellowships, and honorary doctorates by St Andrews, Essex and East Anglia for his contributions to
nature writing Nature writing is nonfiction or fiction prose or poetry about the natural environment. Nature writing encompasses a wide variety of works, ranging from those that place primary emphasis on natural history facts (such as field guides) to those in w ...
. He was awarded a
Civil List Pension Pensions in the United Kingdom, whereby United Kingdom tax payers have some of their wages deducted to save for retirement, can be categorised into three major divisions - state, occupational and personal pensions. The state pension is based on ...
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 John Clare (13 July 1793 – 20 May 1864) was an English poet. The son of a farm labourer, he became known for his celebrations of the English countryside and sorrows at its disruption. His work underwent major re-evaluation in the late 20th ce ...
Society and President of the Waveney and Blythe Arts. His life of
Gilbert White Gilbert White FRS (18 July 1720 – 26 June 1793) was a " parson-naturalist", a pioneering English naturalist, ecologist, and ornithologist. He is best known for his ''Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne''. Life White was born on ...
won the 1986 Whitbread Biography of the Year. His ''Flora Britannica'' won the
British Book Awards The British Book Awards or Nibbies are literary awards for the best UK writers and their works, administered by '' The Bookseller''. The awards have had several previous names, owners and sponsors since being launched in 1990, including the Nationa ...
' Illustrated Book of the Year and the
Botanical Society of the British Isles The Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) is a scientific society for the study of flora, plant distribution and taxonomy relating to Great Britain, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. The society was founded as the Bo ...
' President's Award, and was runner-up for the BP Natural World Book Prize.


Portraits

The National Portrait Gallery has a 1984 bromide print of Richard Mabey by Mark Gerson. Mabey sat for sculptor
Jon Edgar Jon Edgar is a British sculptor of the Frink School. Improvisation is an important part of his reductive working process and developed from the additive working process of Alan Thornhill. Final works are often autobiographical, perhaps referen ...
in Norfolk during 2007, as part of the '' Environment Triptych'' (2008) along with heads of
Mary Midgley Mary Beatrice Midgley (' Scrutton; 13 September 1919 – 10 October 2018) was a British philosopher. A senior lecturer in philosophy at Newcastle University, she was known for her work on science, ethics and animal rights. She wrote her first b ...
and James Lovelock.


Bibliography

* * * * * * * (with Francesca Greenoak) * * * * * (with Michael McIntyre) * * * (with illustrations by Clare Roberts) * - photography by Gareth Lovett Jones * * * * (co-author) * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Contributions

* (Editor) * (Editor) * (Editor) * *''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'',
Peter Matthiessen Peter Matthiessen (May 22, 1927 – April 5, 2014) was an American novelist, naturalist, wilderness writer, zen teacher and CIA Operative. A co-founder of the literary magazine ''The Paris Review'', he was the only writer to have won the Nation ...
, Viking Press, 1978, * *''The Tree: A Celebration of Our Living Skyline'', edited by Peter Wood,
David & Charles David & Charles Ltd is an English publishing company. It is the owner of the David & Charles imprint, which specialises in craft and lifestyle publishing. David and Charles Ltd acts as distributor for all David and Charles Ltd books and cont ...
, 1993, * *''An Exaltation of Skylarks'', compiled by Stewart Beer, SMH Books, (1995), *''
Lark Rise to Candleford ''Lark Rise to Candleford'' is a trilogy of semi-autobiographical novels by Flora Thompson about the countryside of north-east Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, England, at the end of the 19th century. The stories were previously published s ...
'' (2009 edition) *


Educational and children's books

*''Pop Process'' (Hutchinson 1969) *''Behind the Scene'' *''Food'' *''Children in Primary School'' * *''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)


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mabey, Richard 1941 births British nature writers English environmentalists English nature writers Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Living people People educated at Berkhamsted School Alumni of St Catherine's College, Oxford