Angi KennedyHe's been called Britain's greatest living nature writer, but Richard Mabey tells Angi Kennedy 'it's no job for a grown-up!'Angi Kennedy

He's been called Britain's greatest living nature writer, but Richard Mabey tells Angi Kennedy 'it's no job for a grown-up!'

His writings span almost 40 years with acclaimed and award-winning books on many aspects of the natural world; his broadcasting is informative and assured; his advice is sought on arts and conservation issues nationally.

Yet Richard Mabey laughs heartily when he explains the rather ironic title of the talk he will be giving at Salthouse 10 this month - Nature Writing: Not a Job for Grown-ups.

'I'm not sure that any writing is a job for an adult!' chuckles the naturalist and ecologist who has called Norfolk his second home for much of his adult life and his true home for the past seven years. 'I think I came up with that one after a particularly frustrating time on my latest book.'

This also has a delightfully intriguing title - Weeds, How vagabond plants gate-crashed civilisation and changed how we think about nature (published by Profile and due out in October) - and is an expansive discussion of the cultural history of weeds, with references across thousands of years, from Genesis to The Day of the Triffids.

It's certainly no gardening manual. Richard has dug into his years' of experience in studying the natural world for this philosophical and historical study of the humble weed.

'The book is really about the way that nature is an alien state. It's about how we draw the boundaries between what we find acceptable and not acceptable,' he explains.

'You could say that the history of weeds stretches back 10,000 years to when farming and civilisation began. Human beings divided the plant world into two parts - those we found useful and cultivated, and that which was wild. But weeds stray across those boundaries.

'Anyone who has followed my writings through my life will know that I am passionate about nature's refusal to live by human boundaries. Weeds certainly do this; we tend to regard them as something that has invaded our space, a plant in the wrong place.

'Yet they have a power to heal broken places. If it wasn't for weeds there would be massive soil erosion,' for instance.'

A favourite example for Richard is the poppy, which has a strong significance here in the 'Poppyland' of north Norfolk.

'It has had a history of over 4000 years of oscillating between being a weed in the fields and an almost sacred symbol of life,' he says. 'The Assyrians worshipped the poppy as a sign of sacrifice and new life since 2000BC.

Read more of Richard's interview in the July issue of EDP Norfolk, on sale now!