Gilbert White: A Biography of the Author of The Natural History of Selborne

by Richard Mabey

With more than two hundred editions, Gilbert White's The Natural History of Selborne is one of the most published books in the English language. An environmental study of the eighteenth-century Hampshire parish where White was born and later served as curate, the book is distinguished by the author's meticulous observations of plant and animal life--the "minute particulars" -- and his uncanny sense of their interdependence. His book is both the definitive expression of the English love for countryside and a cornerstone of all environmental writing.

In this Whitbread Prize-winning biography, Richard Mabey--whom the Times has called "Britain's foremost nature writer"--looks at the life from which the celebrated work grew. This is not an easy task. Although White's findings did not go unnoticed in his own time (much of the Selborne book's contents are in fact letters to Thomas Pennant, one of the era's leading zoologists), relatively little is known about his minor clergyman, who made twenty pounds a year and rarely ventured outside his parish. Mabey visits not only the public and private records but the environs of Selborne, which survive to this day and are remarkably unchanged. A portrait of exceptional detail emerges, and we begin to see very clearly this singular man whose superb scientific eye was complemented by a patient curiosity (he valued observing over collecting) and an emotional investment in his work that still speaks to us. White typifies the eclectic but intense engagement that has nearly vanished in our era of scientific specialization. We recognize in his work a crucial shift in the human perception of nature--as something benign rather than as an adversary.

The first U.S. edition of this classic biography coincides with a new BBC documentary on Gilbert White, for which Mabey is a featured commentator. These are only the latest reminders of the fascination White's book has exercised upon readers for two centuries.

Genres: Natural History, Nature, Biography, Nonfiction, History, British Literature, Gardening

252 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1986

About the author

Richard Mabey is one of England's greatest nature writers. He is author of some thirty books including Nature Cure which was shortlisted for the Whitbread, Ondaatje and Ackerley Awards.

A regular commentator on the radio and in the national press, he is also a Director of the arts and conservation charity Common Ground and Vice-President of the Open Spaces Society. He lives in Norfolk.

Reviews

[Kate]

3.5
Sounds like a nice bloke who really liked swallows and his family and a female tortoise mistakenly called Timothy who he did experiments on - one conclusion being that the species had no aquatic ability.......poor Timothy!

I'd be interested to read more of his letters as they sound like an interesting glimpse into a world long gone. Sympathise with his terrible coach sickness and fascinated by the idea of visitors needing a guide to navigate the lanes to reach the village.

Nat Hist of Selbourne on my 'to read' list & I'd love a trip to Selbourne

Pg204 of compiling his index he wrote 'an occupation full as entertaining as that of darning stockings, though by no means so advantageous to society'.

[Sophy H]

Hmm, though I'm a fan of Mabey, I'm certainly not enough of a fan of Gilbert White to have enjoyed this title.

Though snippets of Selborne nature are revisited here, White's life is not exactly scintillating so it felt a bit of a stretch to write an entire book about it.

Just ok, would be interesting but only if you're a superfan of Gilbert White.

[Adam Stevenson]

I hadn’t heard of Gilbert White or The Natural History of Selborne until his biography was put on the booklist for my reading group. I then read the Natural History and found it peculiarly charming and also rather peculiar. I was keen to find out about the man behind the book.

A myth has since grown up about Gilbert White as an ‘Adam in Eden’, an almost thoughtless, animal-like man, tied resolutely to his little parish, open to natural experience in a completely unreflective way. This book creates the character of a person slightly more troubled, both tied to his place but oddly rootless, open to experience but thoughtfully perfectionist over his book that it took him over twenty years and almost didn’t come out.

One of the big sources behind the book is White’s college friend John Mulso. Gilbert did not deserve a friend like John; always supportive, always lightly joshing, always keeping up correspondence and visits, even as White was slow to reciprocate. He reminded me of the fat best-friend in a romantic comedy and we all need someone like that. Mulso also spotted White’s talents and was convinced he was going to make something of himself, even as he evidently didn’t.

White finished university at Oriel College in Oxford, drifted around a few curacies but kept finding himself back at his family home in Selborne. He never progressed in his career, never became the full vicar of anywhere, and never properly pursued positions anywhere else, getting more and more rooted in his Selborne soil. He flirted a little with Mulso’s sister (who later became the bluestocking, Mrs Chapone) but like he never committed to his career, he never committed to a relationship, living as a life long bachelor. Mulso tries to egg him into dating but he’s diffident, never having his own family but becoming a really good uncle to his nearly 60 nephews and nieces. To be honest, I sympathise with him, I’ve been a teaching assistant for nearly 15 years and am pretty confirmed in my own bachelordom, as I see it, he just wanted to live his pleasant uncomplicated life and he did.

The biggest drama in his life seems to have been his melon farming, which is described in this book as a nail-biting drama. One of the reasons he didn’t travel far was that he got coach sick (though he seemed fine on a horse). At one point his personal expenses note that he gave a woman a soup tureen to pay back a coach fair and Richard Mabey makes the supposition that it was a joke about his vomiting.

I suppose it was inevitable he’d write a book about nature, all his family were clergyman-naturalists or booksellers, but he attacked the project with the same lack of energy he gave his career or his love life, but he did finish it and it’s a charming book, as is this biography. Gilbert White doesn’t seem to have been the most dynamic person to have lived, especially in the eighteenth century, but he took his pleasures where he could and gave a lot of people pleasure.

[Lucy]

I enjoyed reading this book very much as I was keen to learn about Gilbert White. I found it an easy read and informative. In terms of the style of writing: Perhaps I expected it to be more beautiful, as it dealt with the father of ecology. I recommend it nevertheless as a good introduction to the life of Gilbert White.

[Trish]

An interesting history about a fascinating man who was ahead of his time in terms of environmental studies and ecology

[Chiefdonkey Bradey]

I remembered the Hangers Way - the gentle light, the tender trees

[5greenway]

four-plus. Great writing

[Carol]

Useful to read this alongside Gilbert White.

[Harry Taylor]

felt counterproductive ngl

[Jack Bates]

We went to Gilbert White's house in Selborne (he's a local hero round these parts) and I bought this in the gift shop afterwards. I love Mabey's nature writing and this is a nicely written and well researched biography of a man who was fascinated by everything in the natural world. Nice to read it when you've just been to the place where it all happened, as well. Good stuff.

[Martha E.]

I found Gilbert White's wonderful The Natural History of Selborne on a sale table at The Strand. I was immediately hooked. Later I got an audio version and sometimes just listen for a while to soothe my mind. This brief biography is delightful too. What can I say? I am enthralled.

[Ciwan]

A calm read with often interesting descriptions of a time long gone.

[Strephon]

Well written. A great look into the life and times of Gilbert White, who, according to Steven Fry on QI, penned the first ever recorded use of a 'X' to denote a kiss at the end of a letter.