Free Thinking: Nature Writing

Gilbert White was born on July 19 1720 in Hampshire. His Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789) influenced a young Charles Darwin and he's been called England's first ecologist. Dafydd Mills Daniel from the University of Oxford tracks his influence from contemporary debates about the impact of man on the planet and the beginnings of precise and scientific observations about birds and animals to programmes such as Springwatch. Also in the programme, Dr Pippa Marland from the University of Leeds, who runs the Landlines project and researches the way farming has been depicted in British literature, and author Lucy Jones who is involved in research into health and nature and women writers including Christiane Ritter. Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough hosts