Selected Writings 1974-1999 [Hardcover]

The first single-volume selection of Richard Mabey's writings, revealing the range and quality of his thinking on nature and the environment over a quarter of a century.

Selected Writings includes the bext of Richard Mabey's important and wide-ranging journalism, from nature diaries to writings on travel and environmental art, to full-blown investigations of forestry, farmi ng and developmental scandals. We meet flamingos in the Camargue flamenco singers in Extremaduran cork-oak forest; the sculptor David Nash's 'Wooden Boulder' and the biologist James Lovelock's theory of Gaia; the grim environmental imagery of the Gulf War and the inspiration of the recovery of our woodland from the devastation of the great storms of 1987 and 1990: an archetypal village in Middle England, and the teeming cosmopolitan wildlife of London's East End. Through the many disparate pieces run the common threads of creativity and autonomy of nature, the importance of the sense of locality, and our thraldom to the seasons. And as the national debate about the future of the coutnryside moves ever more centre stage, so the themes which have been explored in Mabey's writings take on a new relevance.

Richard Mabey is one of our most gifted and evocative writers on nature and the environment. This single-volume collection of the best of his writings shows the range and quality of his thinking over a quarter of a century. It includes nature diaries, writings on travel and environmental art and full-blown investigations of forestry, farming and development scandals. Here, too, are personal meditations, on the nature of landscape, the mythology of woodlands and the appeal of wilderness.

But it is in its vivid, vital detail that Richard Mabey's writing shines. We meet flamingos in the Camargue and flamenco singers in Estremaduran cork-oak forests; the sculptor David Nash's 'Wooden Boulder' and the biologist James Lovelock's theory of the Gulf War and the inspiration of the recovery of our woodland from the devastation of the great storms of 1987 and 1990; an archetypal village in Middle England, and the teeming cosmopolitan wildlife of London's East End. Through these many disparate pieces run the common threads of the creativity and autonomy of nature, the importance of the sense of locality and our own thralldom to the seasons.

As the national debate about the future of the countryside moves ever more center stage, so the themes which have been explored in Mabey's writings for more than twenty-five years take on a new and urgent relevance.

Richard Mabey became a household name with the publication of his first book, Food for Free, in 1972. His position as one of our foremost writers in the subject of nature has since been confirmed by the outstanding success of the bestselling Flora Britannica.

His other books include The Unofficial Countryside, The Common Ground, The Flowering of Britain and his intensely personal study of the nightingale, Whistling in the Dark. His biography of Gilbert White won the Whitbread Biography Award for 1986.

He is also a broadcaster and recently wrote and narrated the popular BBC television series Postcards from the Country.

(19990322)