Our team
The Book Festival is run by a small voluntary committee who meet on a regular basis to research, plan and develop the Festival.
Our patron: Richard Mabey
We are proud to say that Richard Mabey is our patron.
Richard’s first book Food for Free came out in 1972 and since then he has impressed all who love nature with his thoughtful and challenging writing in over 30 books, many television films, radio, writings and talks. The Unofficial Countryside (1973) and Weeds (2010) explore the bits and pieces of land and the plants that purists failed to ’see'. His biography of Gilbert White (1986) won the Whitbread Biography Prize while Flora Britannica (1996) celebrated plants in popular culture. From Nature Cure (2005) and Beechcombings (2007) to the Cabaret of Plants (2016) his reading of the land has always opened our eyes to new ways of looking and caring about our surroundings.