Publisher's Synopsis
Signed by the author
Richard Mabey is Britain’s most influential writer on natural history, and has been a pioneer of environmental thinking for over 50 years. He has written over 30 ground-breaking and popular books, including Food for Free, The Unofficial Countryside, Gilbert White (which won the Whitbread Biography Award), Flora Britannica, Beechcombings, Cabaret of Plants and his best-selling memoir Nature Cure, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread, Ondaatje and J. R. Ackerley.
At the height of his career, having recently published Flora Britannica, the author and naturalist fell in to a deep and all consuming depression. Unable to rise from his bed, his face turned to the wall, Richard Mabey found that the touchstones of his life – his love for nature and the land – could no longer offer him solace. But over time, with help from friends and a move to East Anglia, he slowly recovered, finding a new partner, and a new relationship with landscape.
Mabey’s memoir on his recovery from crippling depression through a rediscovery of his love for nature is quite remarkable both for its honesty and its total lack of ego. He has much to say on Man’s relationship with nature and the prose is both warm and fiercely intelligent.’ The Judges, Whitbread Book Awards, 2005.
THE RICHARD MABEY LIBRARY
Published to celebrate Richard Mabey’s 80th birthday and his many achievements as a naturalist and writer, Little Toller presents a limited edition library of his greatest works, printed in the UK with new introductions by Richard Mabey. With newly-commissioned jacket artworks by Michael Kirkman, the titles include: Beechcombings, The Unofficial Countryside, Nature Cure and Gilbert White