Oliver Rackham

Oliver Rackham (17 October 1939 – 12 February 2015) was an academic at the University of Cambridge who studied the ecology, management and development of the British countryside, especially trees, woodlands and wood pasture. His books included Ancient Woodland and The History of the Countryside (1986).

Life and academic career Rackham was born in Bungay in Suffolk, and attended Norwich School. In 1958 he won a scholarship to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, graduating in Natural Sciences in 1961 and subsequently gaining a PhD. He began his academic career studying physics, but moved between several Cambridge departments (where his field notebooks are now digitally archived He briefly served as Master of the College from 2007 to 2008, and was made a Life Fellow in 2010. He argued for the preservation of traditional management techniques like coppicing, to let light in to increase in the diversity of the herb layer.

In 1986 he published The History of the Countryside, regarded as his greatest achievement and described as "a magisterial 400-page account of the British landscape from prehistory to the present day, with chapters on aspects ranging from woodland and hedgerows to marshes and the sea." The book won several awards for literature. Corpus Christi College named one of their boats 'Rackham the Red' in his honour.

Personal life Rackham was an only child, and was unmarried.

Awards OBE for "services to Nature Conservation", 1998. Fellow of the British Academy, 2002. Honorary Doctorate, University of Essex, 2000 For The History of the Countryside: 1986 Angel Literary Award, the Sir Peter Kent Conservation Prize and the Natural World Book of the Year.

Selected works

(published posthumously)