First published in Great Britain in 2011 by
PROFILE BOOKS LTD
3A Exmouth House
Pine Street
London ECIR OJH
Shorter versions of these essays were originally broadcast by
Richard Mabey on BBC Radio 3 in autumn 2009, in The Essay series, titled
‘The Scientist and the Romantic’.
Copyright © Richard Mabey, 2011
Illustrations by Michael Kirkwood
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Clays, Bungay, Suffolk
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 84668 407 4
eISBN 978 1 84765 450 2
The paper this book is printed on is certified by the © 1996 Forest Stewardship Council A.C. (FSC). It is ancient-forest friendly. The printer holds FSC chain of custody SGS-COC-2061