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Richard Mabey

Author of Food for Free

65+ Works 3,081 Members 47 Reviews 4 Favorited

About the Author

Richard Mabey is one of Great Britain's foremost nature writers and editors. Mabey has written "The New Age Herbalist: How to Use Herbs for Healing, Nutrition, Body Care, and Relaxation," "In the Oxford Book of Nature Writing," which won the Whitbread Biography Award, and the BBC's television show more series, "Postcards from the Country." (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Eamonn McCabe

Series

Works by Richard Mabey

Food for Free (1972) 369 copies, 2 reviews
Food For Free (Collins Gem) (1972) 200 copies
Nature Cure (2005) 197 copies, 5 reviews
Flora Britannica (1996) 164 copies
The Unofficial Countryside (1973) 97 copies, 3 reviews
Beechcombings: The Narratives of Trees (2007) 90 copies, 2 reviews
The Frampton Flora (1985) 76 copies
Gilbert White (1986) 66 copies, 1 review
Bugs Britannica (2010) 54 copies
The Flowering of Britain (1980) 45 copies
Plants with a Purpose (1977) 35 copies
Oak and Company (1983) 32 copies, 1 review
The Flowering of Kew (1988) 26 copies
The Perfumier and the Stinkhorn (2011) 21 copies, 1 review
Home Country (1990) 19 copies
Flora Britannica Book of Wild Herbs (1998) 19 copies, 1 review
Roadside Wild Life Book (1974) 11 copies
The Book of Nightingales (1997) 10 copies
Flora Britannica Book of Spring Flowers (1998) 10 copies, 1 review
Street Flowers (1976) 6 copies
Second Nature (1984) 5 copies
The pop process (1969) 5 copies
The Accidental Garden: The Plot Thickens (2024) 4 copies, 1 review
Cold Comforts (1983) 4 copies
A nature journal (1991) 2 copies, 1 review
Plantcraft (1979) 1 copy
The Yorkshire Dales (2013) 1 copy
Wilde straatbloemen (1978) 1 copy
Naturens vilde gaver (1975) 1 copy

Associated Works

Lark Rise to Candleford (1945) — Introduction, some editions — 1,888 copies, 29 reviews
The Man Who Planted Trees (1953) — Foreword, some editions — 1,874 copies, 44 reviews
Granta 93: God's Own Countries (2006) — Contributor — 135 copies
The English Landscape: Its Character and Diversity (2000) — Contributor — 81 copies
Why Willows Weep: Contemporary Tales from the Woods (2011) — Contributor — 23 copies, 2 reviews
Slightly Foxed 50: Wilder Shores (2016) — Contributor — 18 copies
Countryside (1998) — some editions — 17 copies
Slightly Foxed 47: Curioser and Curioser (2015) — Contributor — 14 copies
Slightly Foxed 41: Cellmates (2014) — Contributor — 13 copies, 1 review
The Flora of Hampshire (1996) — Foreword — 8 copies

Tagged

19th century (53) 20th century (38) autobiography (88) biography (111) botany (123) Britain (40) British (37) country life (38) countryside (34) ecology (87) edible plants (38) England (114) English literature (32) environment (60) fiction (330) Folio Society (41) food (91) foraging (58) France (45) French (32) French literature (45) gardening (89) herbs (87) history (78) literature (51) memoir (111) natural history (223) nature (271) non-fiction (203) novel (35) Oxfordshire (41) plants (136) read (33) reference (33) science (51) short stories (45) social history (41) to-read (306) trees (99) weeds (40)

Common Knowledge

Members

Discussions

Nightingales: The Barley Bird by Richard Mabey in Birds, Birding & Books (September 2010)

Reviews

Really really needs illustrations. I spent far too much time googling for images. There are chapter art pieces, but they don't actually always have to do with the the species that is the 'hook' of focus for the chapter. If I'd known there was a glossary of Latin names in the back, I could have found images more effectively (given the ridiculous diversity of common names many wildflowers, grasses, and other small weeds have). Or if I'd been able to read the book just for the history, themes, and principles, I could have skipped knowing what plants he was talking about. Or if I were English, or had seen his documentaries, I'd already know them. As is, I think I liked the text and found things of interest in it, but I'm more bemused than anything.

The main thing that anyone needs to know is that human acts create weeds. Disturbed lands, especially those that have had their existing ecology disturbed as well as the earth itself, are the most inviting for both native opportunists and non-native invaders. And our efforts to eradicate them simply encourage them to find ways to survive... for example low-lying dandelions in lawns. It's an arms race, just like the one between bacteria and antibiotics.

I do want to read at least some of [b:Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery|15412877|Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery|John Clare|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1416750277s/15412877.jpg|21069086] by [a:John Clare|160110|John Clare|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1283120511p2/160110.jpg].

Darwin reportedly joked to Asa Gray about the pervasiveness of British weeds in N. America, and the scarcity of Amer. weeds in England, "Does it not hurt your Yankee pride that we thrash you so confoundedly?" Gray's wife responded that American weeds were "modest, woodland, retiring things; and no match for the intrusive, pretentious, self-asserting foreigners." Mabey says this is "both witty and scientifically spot-on."

And here's all that we get to answer the question that I thought would be the central premise of the book: "And weeds are the very stuff of life for insects. Brimstone butterflies gather nectar from early buttercups. The caterpillars of small tortoiseshell, peacock, and red admiral feed on nettle leaves. And to the question, 'What are weeds for?' one answer might be, 'Moths.'" He goes on to list many species that feed on dock. And that's about it.

Not a bad book, but not recommended.
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Cheryl_in_CC_NV | 9 other reviews | Oct 18, 2024 |
The accidental garden. Gardends, wilderness and the space in between is a book about nature and gardening. It's author, Richard Mabey is considered one of the great, successful writers of the genre, which is now very popular. Regretfully, this shines through, as the author seems overselfconscious.

Nonetheless, when the author is not talking about himself, there is sufficient space on the pages of this book for wonderful descriptions of gardens and nature, and has been a pleasure to read. By the way, I find the cover very beautiful.… (more)
 
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edwinbcn | Aug 19, 2024 |
In this small, but powerful book, Mabey stands back and looks at the decisions made over their two acre garden in Norfolk for the last twenty years.

Amongst the many comments about his back aching and his eye sight fading, we find closely observed changes to his garden brought about by nature but also with a helping hand from he and his wife and sometimes completely created by him as in the mediterranean bed. Not a lot native in that area of the garden.

The title is interesting because I think his garden is anything but accidental. To me, accidental has the connotations of it all happening without thought or decision making and that is definitely not the case. A LOT of thought went into who and how the garden develped and whilst it might have been a partnership between the Mabeys and nature, there are definite ideas about how it would happen.

We can play other roles beyond the planning and planting and pruning, roles that are also special to our human identity. Be interpreters, scribes, witnesses, neighbours. The welcomers at the gate.
p156

The subtitle is more accurate: Gardens, Wilderness and the space in between.

A daily perambulation around your garden is a wonderful way of seeing all those small changes including the creatures that move in to help with that change. The secret is to allow these changes to occur. No, a large branch falling off a tree is not planned, but the decision to leave it where it fell and observe what happens is. It was at this point that Mabey realised he didn't have the native oak tree but the Turkey oak which leads into a discussion about native trees and plant introductions. He talks about the red valerian which has settled into a patch of gravel near his boiler outlet, its many names suggesting a history of establishing itself wherever it lands because the big question is where does a plant properly belong?

Beyond their transportation by humans, plants have always been autonomous wanderers, carried by ocean currents and migrating birds, their ranges pushed this way and that by changes in the climate. But underneath this slow nomadic drift there is a compelling sense of the kind of environment into which an individual species 'fits'. This is not just an ecological fit (type of soil, shade, humidity, etc) but a cultural one, based on long associations. Plants aren't passive objects in a landscape; they help comprise and shape landscapes, and our experience of place.
p98

Because the book looks back over twenty years, Mabey is able to see changes in this thinking and this is powerful.

In a time of great environmental instability, maybe we need to adopt a more generous and inclusive idea of nativeness, a more welcoming attitude to newcomers. Our long-term inhabitants are being shifted by climate change and sometimes destroyed by the diseases proliferating in its wake. Unless we allow - even enable - new colonists in old places we could end up with impoverished ecosystems and landscapes. They are, at the very least, an insurance policy.
p106

A wonderful book, a memoir through the eyes of a garden, that is going on the gardening book club list.
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allthegoodbooks | Jul 13, 2024 |
Loved this book. Sort of a biography of weeds, in a way, or at least of the way some weeds have intersected with humans. I wish there had been photos, as so many of the weeds were truly beautiful. I kept my iPad handy, for reference. The uses of plants by man, and the abuses, and the likely future were all explored. Really enjoyed it. Highly recommended
 
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cspiwak | 9 other reviews | Mar 6, 2024 |

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Works
65
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Popularity
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Rating
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Reviews
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ISBNs
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