UK: Richard Mabey in conversation with Stephen Hopper
23.11.10
The author of some of the UK's most important natural history books will meet the director of the world's most eminent botanical institutions on 1 December in a rare treat for all lovers of botany.
Richard Mabey, the best selling author of the classic text Flora Britannica. Heralded by the Times as ‘Britain’s greatest living nature writer’ Mabey will be discussing Weeds - his new book - with Prof Stephen Hopper of Kew. Beautifully illustrated and elegantly wrought, this landmark journey through the cultural history of weeds urges us to rethink the attitudes we have to such an enormous section of the plant world. The event promises to be entertaining and thought provoking.
Some praise for Weeds...
‘A treat’ (Financial Times)
‘Enraptured, visionary, witty and erudite’ and ‘a fascinating read’ (the Daily Telegraph)
‘[Mabey] is the steward of a pastoral tradition in which highly personal responses to landscape are matched by expert environmental concerns; his ideas have become standard with no loss of urgency.’ (Andrew Motion, the Guardian)
Richard Mabey is the best-selling author of Flora Britannica and has been shortlisted for the Whitbread Award. A regular commentator on the radio and in the national press, he is also a Director of the arts and conservation charity Common Ground and Vice-President of the Open Spaces Society. He was appointed to the Civil List in 2008 for services to literature.