Richard Mabey in conversation with Patrick Barkham

Pioneering and thought-provoking, Richard Mabey has almost single-handedly invented the genre of British nature writing. On the 50th anniversary of his seminal work, Food for Free, Richard will discuss writing, our changing relationship with nature and the future of the planet with fellow East Anglian writer and Guardian journalist Patrick Barkham.

Richard Mabey is the author of some thirty books, including The Cabaret of Plants: Botany and the Imagination (2015), and Whistling in the Dark: In Pursuit of the Nightingale (1993), winner of the East Anglia Book Award, 2010, in a revised version entitled The Barley Bird, Beechcombings: the narratives of Trees (2007), the ground-breaking and best-selling “cultural flora” Flora Britannica (1996), winner of a National Book Award, and Gilbert White, which won the Whitbread Biography Award in 1986. His recent memoir Nature Cure (2005), which describes how reconnecting with the wild helped him break free from debilitating depression, was short-listed for three major literary awards, the Whitbread, Ondaatje, and J.R. Ackerley prizes. His latest book is Turning the Boat for Home (2019). He writes for the Guardian, New Statesman and Granta, and contributes frequently to BBC radio.

Patrick Barkham is an award-winning author and the Guardian’s Natural History Writer. His books include The Butterfly Isles, Coastlines, Badgerlands, Islander and Wild Child. He is currently working on a biography of the nature writer Roger Deakin. He lives in Norfolk with his family.