The June issue of the excellent British Wildlife magazine came through my letterbox today.
If you subscribe too, you will find it contains a sad announcement that three weeks ago the editor of British Wildlife, Malcolm Tait, died suddenly. All our thoughts should be with his wife Claire and their family and friends.
I have a string of emails from Malcolm regarding my thrice-yearly column in British Wildlife and they remind me, because I’ve re-read them all, that he was a delight to work with. I only met Malcolm in person once, and we said we’d have a proper chat some time but that never happened – our relationship was mostly emails and occasional jolly ‘phone calls.
This issue stands as a fitting tribute to Malcolm’s editorial skill with articles on Rewilding at Knepp Castle, The Mystery of the Orkney vole (or should that be vowel?), and a Guide to Bird Guides. There is also the ‘must-turn-to-first’ Twitcher in the Swamp column.
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Dear Mr Avery
I am Malc’s sister, and it fills me with an immense amount of pride that you felt about Malc that way. It was a privilege to grow up with a brother that enjoyed the natural world so much – his desire to learn was huge because he never thought of himself as a naturalist, just an interested amateur, and from our earliest years we would put together magazines – Malcy writing, me drawing – and that is how our lives panned out. He an editor, me a designer.
Our mother, when we were young, used to take us on country walks looking at trees, snails, flowers, leaves, mushrooms… and all the while she would tell us what we were looking at – I think Malc got it more than me. But they were magical afternoons that we would come home and write about.
He had a great deal of respect for you. I’ll be honest I probably would not have known about you if Malcy had not talked of you so much. But not surprising as, although we loved our lives together as brother and sister, his world was so beyond me. He moved in circles that thrilled him and enthused him; and your name came up often.
It is incredibly hard to live now without the brother that I loved for 50 years, but I am so immensely proud of what he did, who he knew, and the legacy he has left through his knowledge and enthusisam. Many thanks for being a part of Malcy’s life . Lou