Richard Mabey is the author of some forty books, including the bestselling Flora Britannica, Weeds and Nature Cure, which was short-listed for the Whitbread, Ondaatje and Ackerley awards.

His biography Gilbert White won the Whitbread Biography Prize in 1986. He is a regular broadcaster on BBC radio, writes regularly for the Guardian, New Statesman and Granta, and has contributed a personal column to BBC Wildlife for the past 25 years. He is Patron of the John Clare Society, and Vice-President of the Open Spaces Society. He lives in Norfolk.