by Bill Bryson
CPRE is optimistic about the future. We recently published a very positive vision for the countryside in 2026, our centenary year. But there is no disguising the seriousness of the threats facing the countryside. When we polled over a thousand people on their favourite ‘icon of England’, the result suggested that our ten most popular icons face the risk of serious erosion or even extinction.
Our national icons are symbols of resistance to the homogenization of our culture and landscape – much as the Green Man carvings in Norman churches described by Paul Kingsnorth may have been symbols of political resistance almost a thousand years ago.
Such things as local pubs, red phone boxes, hedgerows and drystone walls, village greens (ideally with cricket played on them), local varieties of food and village churches and churchyards may not be economically ‘viable’ or essential to our existence. No doubt they could be rationalized, modernized, made more efficient. But they are essential to our quality of life and our sense of identity. They are a large part of what makes England worth protecting. CPRE will carry on that work.
‘There are particular places in England that come as close to perfection as you’re ever likely to find on this planet. The English countryside is incredibly beautiful, dangerously finite and inexpressibly precious. We can secure a better future for the English countryside. We must. And we will.’
Bill Bryson
President, CPRE
CONTRIBUTORS
Kate Adie, OBE
became a household name for her award-winning work as the BBC’s Chief News Correspondent. She now presents From Our Own Correspondent on BBC Radio 4, and is the author of four books, including her bestselling autobiography, The Kindness of Strangers.
George Alagiah, OBE
presents the BBC News at Six and World News Today. He has won several awards, including Amnesty International’s Best TV Journalist. He is a governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and is an active supporter of Human Rights Watch.
Peter Ashley
is a writer and photographer who champions everything that makes England such a unique and interesting place to live. He wrote Unmitigated England and More From Unmitigated England, and edited Railway Rhymes.
Clive Aslet
is Editor-at-Large of Country Life. He writes for the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Telegraph and the Sunday Times. His latest book, The English House, came out in autumn 2008.
Paul Atterbury
is a writer, lecturer and broadcaster. His special interests include art, design and the history of canals and railways. He has written or edited over thirty books, and since 1990 has been one of the experts on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow.
Dame Joan Bakewell
is a broadcaster and writer. She began her TV career in the 1960s with BBC’s Late Night Line-Up. She now presents Belief on BBC Radio 3 and Inside the Ethics Committee on BBC Radio 4. She is Chair of The National Campaign for the Arts and spokesman for older people, appointed by the Labour government.
Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, MBE, FRSA
has worked as a researcher, teacher and SEN specialist in London. He is a trustee of the International Muslim Charity (Muslim Aid), and has been Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain since June 2006.
Simon Barnes
is the multi-award-winning chief sportswriter at The Times and also writes the paper’s ‘Wildlife Notebook’. He is the author of fifteen books, including How to be a Bad Birdwatcher and How to be Wild.
Laura Barton
is a feature writer for the Guardian. She lives in London.
Sister Wendy Beckett
was born in South Africa and became a nun in 1946 in the order of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. She became a Consecrated Virgin in 1970 and leads a contemplative lifestyle. She became well known in the 1990s, presenting a series of acclaimed art history documentaries for the BBC.
Antony Beevor
is a writer and historian and a former officer with the 11th Hussars. He is the author of several bestselling books, including Stalingrad and Berlin: The Downfall, 1945, and is Visiting Professor at the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at Birkbeck, University of London.
David Bellamy, OBE, Hon Fls
is an itinerant botanist who makes his home in County Durham, flanked by some of Britain’s best grouse moors. He will have dined this Christmas on sustainable grouse glazed with heather honey.
Floella Benjamin, OBE
is an actress, independent producer, writer and children’s campaigner. She starred in the iconic Playschool and Playaway for many years. Her production company has made a wide range of award-winning programmes including Coming to England, adapted from her book, which won an RTS Award in 2004. Her most recent television programmes are Mamma Mirabelle and the Sarah Jane Adventures. She also appeared in the hit film Run Fat Boy Run. She was Chairman of BAFTA-Television and is now Chancellor of Exeter University and a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London.
Richard Benson
is a journalist who was brought up on a farm in Yorkshire. Helping his family with the enforced sale of the farm inspired his bestselling memoir, The Farm: The Story of One Family and the English Countryside.
Scyld Berry
is the editor of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack and is the Sunday Telegraph’s cricket correspondent.
Harold ‘Dickie’ Bird, MBE
is a retired international cricket umpire. He umpired in sixty-six Test matches and sixty-nine One Day Internationals, including three World Cup Finals. He retired in 1998, but came out of retirement in January 2007 to umpire the XXXX Gold Beach Cricket Tri-Nations series.
Terence Blacker
is a novelist, biographer and author of children’s books which have been translated into eighteen different languages. His biography You Cannot Live As I Have Lived and Not End Up Like This: The Thoroughly Disgraceful Life and Times of Willie Donaldson won widespread critical acclaim and was BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week. He writes a twice-weekly opinion column for the Independent.
Raymond Blanc, OBE
is one of the finest chefs in the world. His Le Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons has held two Michelin stars for twenty-five years. He has written numerous bestsellers, including A Taste of My Life and Foolproof French Cookery. He is the star of the BBC’s The Restaurant and his own series, Kitchen Secrets, which aired on BBC2 in February 2010.
Ronald Blythe
is a writer and critic from Suffolk. Much of his writing reflects his East Anglian background. He is the author of The Age of Illusion, The View in Winter and Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village, which became an instant classic.
Rosie Boycott
is a journalist and author. She has been Editor of the Independent, the Daily Express and Sunday Express and is a regular guest on BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week and Question Time. Her latest book, Spotted Pigs and Green Tomatoes, was published in paperback in 2008. Rosie is the Chairman of the London Food Board and food advisor to the Mayor of London.
Derry Brabbs
celebrates England’s architectural and cultural legacy through his photographs. He has previously worked on books with Alfred Wainwright and has recently completed Roads to Santiago. His website is www.derrybrabbs.com
Julia Bradbury
grew up in Sheffield and is the presenter of Countryfile, Wainwright Walks and Coast to Coast.
Melvyn Bragg
was writer, editor and presenter of The South Bank Show for London Weekend Television from 1978 to 2009 and has been Controller of Arts at LWT since 1990 (Head of Arts 1982-90). He presented BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week for ten years and is also a prolific novelist. He was made a Life Peer (Lord Bragg of Wigton) in 1998.
Jo Brand
is a stand-up comedian and has appeared on many comedy shows. She is also the co-author and star of Getting On, a sitcom set on a hospital’s geriatric ward which was partly inspired by her earlier career as a psychiatric nurse. Her autobiography, Look Back in Hunger, was published in 2009.
> Bill Bryson
came to England in 1973 on a backpacking expedition and decided to settle. He wrote for The Times and the Independent, and has written many travel books, including The Lost Continent and Notes from a Small Island. His latest book, At Home: A Short History of Private Life, is published in 2010. He is also President of CPRE.
Vincent Cable, MP
is the Member of Parliament for Twickenham. He has been the Liberal Democrats’ main economic spokesman since 2003 and was the acting leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2006 to 2007.
Adrian Chiles
is a broadcaster and writer. He is best known for presenting Match of the Day 2, The Apprentice: You’re Fired and The One Show.
Eric Clapton
is a singer, songwriter and guitarist. He has had a successful solo career, as well as with The Yardbirds, Cream, and Derek and the Dominoes. He is the only triple inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and has won or shared eighteen Grammys.
Sue Clifford
was on the first board of Friends of the Earth whilst a lecturer in planning at University College London during the 1970s and 1980s. She is the founder director of Common Ground and her books include, with Angela King, Holding Your Ground and England in Particular: A Celebration of the Commonplace, the Local, the Vernicular and the Distinctive.
Wendy Cope
was a teacher for nearly twenty years and went freelance shortly after the publication of her first book of poems, Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis in 1986. Two Cures for Love, a selection of her poems, was published in 2008.
Nicholas Crane’s
books include Clear Waters Rising: A Mountain Walk Across Europe and Mercator: The Man Who Mapped the Planet. He is presenter of the recent BBC series, Coast, Map Man and Great British Journeys. Nick is a Vice-President of CPRE.
Dan Cruickshank
is a regular presenter on the BBC, best known for his popular series, Britain’s Best Buildings and Around the World in 80 Treasures. He is an Honorary Fellow of RIBA, a leading expert on architecture and historic buildings, and a frequent contributor to The Architects’ Journal and The Architectural Review.
General Sir Richard Dannatt, GCB, CBE, MC
was commissioned into the Green Howards in 1971. He has served seven tours of duty in Northern Ireland, with the UN in Cyprus, two tours in Bosnia, and in Kosovo. He was Chief of the general staff from 2006 to 2009 and is currently Constable of the Tower of London.
Jonathan Dimbleby
is a writer, broadcaster and film-maker. He has presented Any Questions? and Any Answers? for BBC Radio 4 since 1987. In 2008 his five part series Russia – A Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby was broadcast by BBC2 and his latest book Russia – A Journey to the Heart of a Land and its People, was published to accompany the series. He is currently working on a BBC2 series about Africa. In addition to his Presidency of VSO, he is Chair of Index on Censorship and a Trustee of Dimbleby Cancer Care.
Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones
is a British businessman, farmer, founder of The Black Farmer range of food products, and also founder of a scholarship to encourage ethnic minorities to work in the rural community. He has been selected by the Conservative Party as their prospective parliamentary candidate for Chippenham in the 2010 general election.
Sebastian Faulks, CBE
is the author of eleven books, including Human Traces, Charlotte Gray and Engleby. He has been literary editor of the Independent, columnist for the Guardian and the Evening Standard, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Bryan Ferry
is a singer and songwriter who came into prominence in the 1970s as the founder and lead vocalist of Roxy Music. He has since had a successful solo career, with eight UK top ten solo albums.
Dick Francis, CBE
was an author and retired jockey. Following his first book, the autobiography The Sport of Queens, he secured a sixteen-year position as Racing Correspondent at the Sunday Express. He had forty-three bestselling novels, starting with Dead Cert in 1962. He died in February 2010.
Trisha Goddard
was a TV reporter and presenter in Australia before coming to the UK. She hosted the popular daily talk show, Trisha, from 1998 to 2009 and is a patron of the mental health charity Mind. She lives in Norfolk.
Zac Goldsmith
is currently chairman of the Ecologist magazine and Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Quality of Life Policy Group. He has been selected by the Conservative Party as their prospective parliamentary candidate for Richmond Park in the 2010 general election.
Andy Goldsworthy
is an artist known for his outdoor sculptures and large-scale installations, such as ‘The Sheepfolds Project’ in Cumbria. His 2007 exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park was awarded the Southbank Award for Visual Arts.
Henrietta Green
is a food writer, broadcaster and founder of www.FoodLoversBritain.com. She is widely acknowledged as the country’s leading expert on local and regional speciality food producers and is author of the acclaimed Food Lovers’ Guide to Britain. To find out more about British cherries visit CherryAid at www.FoodLoversBritain.com.
Graham
Harvey is Agricultural Story Editor on The Archers and author of a number of books on food and the countryside. He wrote The Killing of the Countryside, which won the BP Natural World Book Prize. His latest book is We Want Real Food.
Tom Heap
is a presenter. He is currently kept busy with Costing the Earth on BBC Radio 4, alongside Countryfile, Panorama and Animal 24:7 on TV. He worked at BBC news for thirteen years, latterly as Rural Affairs Correspondent.
Paul Heiney
is a writer and broadcaster, formerly a presenter of That’s Life and Watchdog, he now presents Countrywise. He has also been an organic farmer since 1990. This experience inspired not only his hugely successful column, Farmer’s Diary, which appeared weekly in The Times for seven years, but also a number of books.
Leo Hickman
is an environmental journalist and editor at the Guardian and writes a weekly column on ethical living. He is the author of several books, including: A Life Stripped Bare: My Year Trying to Live Ethically, The Final Call: In Search of the True Cost of Our Holidays and Will Jellyfish Rule the World?, a children’s book about climate change.
Simon Hoggart
is a journalist and broadcaster. He writes on politics for the Guardian, and on wine for The Spectator. Until 2006, he presented The News Quiz on Radio 4. His journalist sketches have been published in a series of books.
Charlotte Hollins
manages Fordhall Community Land Initiative at Fordhall Organic Farm. She saved the farm from developers in 2006 and it is now Britain’s first community-owned farm.
Elizabeth Jane Howard, CBE
has written several novels, television plays and a collection of short stories. Her first novel, The Beautiful Visit, won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1951. Others include The Long View and The Cazalet Chronicles, which were dramatized on BBC1. Her latest novel is Love All.
Margaret Howell
was born in Surrey and has always loved the English countryside. A designer of contemporary clothes, she is inspired by natural fabrics and traditional British craftsmanship.
Tristram Hunt
is a lecturer in British History at Queen Mary, University of London, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He is also the author, most recently, of The Frock-coated Communist: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels.
Maxwell Hutchinson
was President of the Royal Institute of British Architects from 1989 to 1991. He is a practising architect and contributor to BBC Radio 4 and BBC2’s Newsnight. He presented Channel 4’s Demolition Detectives, wrote and presented Number 57 and The History of a House, and worked on First Sight and Restoration Nation.
Kurt Jackson
is one of Britain’s leading artists. He embraces different materials and techniques. An understanding of nat
ural history and ecology, politics and the environment is intrinsic to his art.
Simon Jenkins
writes for the Guardian and the Evening Standard and chairs the National Trust. His books include England’s Thousand Best Churches, England’s Thousand Best Houses and most recently, Wales: Churches, Houses, Castles.
Terry Jones
is best known for being a member of Monty Python, but is also a screenwriter and director. His directorial credits include Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian, Monty Python’s the Meaning of Life, Personal Services and Erik the Viking. He is also the author of several children’s books, including Nicobobinus and Fantastic Stories.
Paul Kingsnorth
is a writer and an environmentalist. He was previously deputy editor of the Ecologist and is the author of two books, One No, Many Yeses and Real England. In 2009 he co-founded the Dark Mountain Project, a new cultural movement for an age of global disruption.
Miles Kington
was a writer for Punch who wrote humorous columns in The Times and the Independent. He was often on BBC radio and was the author of the popular series of books, Let’s Parler Franglais! He died in January 2008.
Satish Kumar
has been the editor of Resurgence for thirty-seven years. He is also Visiting Fellow at Schumacher College. He has written many books, including his autobiography, No Destination.
David Lodge
is a novelist, critic and Professor Emeritus of English Literature at the University of Birmingham. His latest novel is Deaf Sentence. Other works include Author, Author! and Thinks.
Gabby Logan
is a television and radio presenter, as well as a former international gymnast. She currently hosts programmes for BBC Sport, mainly focusing on football, and a Sunday morning radio show on BBC Radio 5 Live.
Richard Mabey
is the author of some thirty books of literary non-fiction, including Gilbert White, which won the Whitbread Biography Award. He is Vice-President of the Open Spaces Society and patron of the John Clare Society.
Fiona MacCarthy, OBE
is a cultural historian best known for her studies of nineteenth and twentieth century arts, crafts and design. Her biography of William Morris won the 1994 Wolfson History Prize. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Arts and was awarded the Bicentenary Medal of the Royal Society of Arts for services to art and design.