Home Comforts

Few people know more about the landscape of Britain than former Coast presenter and president of the Royal Geographical Society, Nicholas Crane. Here, he talks to Essex Life about just what makes the county’s coast an absorbing example of what British geography has to offer.

- Jake Taylor

GIVEN the choice between the wild rainforests or arid desert climates of the far-flung reaches of the world, and the erratic climate and Dickensian moors of ol’ Blighty, geographer extraordinaire Nicholas Crane is unequivocal.

‘Britain is the place that I would like to devote my time to protecting, and getting people caring about,’ he declares. ‘I think the first place we have to look after is our own home; I belong to this island and care very deeply for it.’

The evidence of Nicholas’ love affair with his native country is clear to see. As the lead presenter on BBC’s beloved Coast, Nicholas was an amicable, bespectacled font of enthusiasm – even in the face of a biting gale or near-horizontal rain. When he stepped back from leading the Coast team to become a regular contributor, he turned his attentions inland with Town in 2011. There’s a good chance Nicholas has walked the length and breadth of Britain more times than any modern geographer, along with his ever-present travelling essentials – a compass, an Ordnance Survey Map and an umbrella – the latter becoming synonymous with his bounding, blustery appearances on TV.

Nicholas’ latest project, a mammoth tome entitled The Making of the British Landscape: From the Ice Age to the Present, is somewhat of a magnum opus for the 62-year old. Inspired by an old university text book by celebrated historian WG Hoskins, The Making of the British Landscape was a work Nicholas had envisaged completing for more than 20 years.