In Memory of Robin Page
Robin and Tilly Smith - Cairngorm Reindeer Herd Owner
It was with great sadness that I learnt of the passing of writer, television presenter and newspaper columnist, the vocal yokel - Robin Page, at the end of May.
This is the In Memory piece which I wrote for The Countryman’s Weekly.
Readers will have been saddened to learn of the death of countryman, broadcaster, author and countryside campaigner - Robin Page, who died at his home on Saturday 27 May 2023 at the age of 80. A countryman to the core, an agitating ‘vocal yokel’, author, farmer and newspaper columnist; television presenter whose views on the countryside, wildlife, conservation and misaligned policies generated from Westminster, struck a welcome chord with so many in rural communities, throughout Britain.
I met Robin shortly after he formed The Countryside Restoration Trust with his great friend the artist - Gordon Beningfield and Sir Laurens van Der Post, in 1993. By that time Robin had written a number of books, the widely acclaimed The Decline of an English village in 1974 - a revised edition was published in 2004, The Wildlife of the Royal Estates, The Hunter and the Hunted and Journeys into Britain to name a few. Born into a farming family in a small village west of Cambridge - Barton, the village remained his home moving only a short few steps from his cottage to the family’s farmhouse later in life. Growing up in this rural location instilled his love of the countryside, wildlife and village communities. This ingrained love is perfectly expressed in the first sentence from the introduction of his book The Fox and the Orchid published in 1987. “ The Fox and the Orchid concerns Britain - my Country - whose people, traditions and countryside are more important to me than those of any other part of the globe……”
His regular newspaper columns included the Country Diary in The Telegraph and the Weekend edition, The Mail and The Mail on Sunday. From 1994 he had presented One Man and His Dog, following in Phil Drabbles footsteps. But his association with Sir James Goldsmith’s Referendum Party, did not appeal to the BBC and he ceased to be the programme’s presenter in 2000. I worked with him as his photographer for well over twelve years, travelling extensively from 1997 onwards as we researched material for his book The Hunting Gene, published in 2000. In subsequent years our research again took as across the length and breadth of Britain meeting numerous characters of the countryside and rural communities, country and sporting artists, farmers and those involved and ingrained in the hunting, shooting and fishing community. Many of whom were to feature in articles for countryside magazines, newspapers and rural publications.
The infamous 2002 Gloucestershire incident and its aftermath remains indelibly etched on my mind, when during one of Robin’s countryside show ring speeches he said: “If you are a black, vegetarian, Muslim, asylum-seeking, one-legged lorry driver, I want the same rights as you”. Present during his arrest for inciting racial hatred and the subsequent interview - he was released without charge, I can only say the compensation he received six years later was exceedingly overdue.
The time we spent together over the years was always full of incident, normally amusing, often politically charged, but most of all fun. Through Robin I met some wonderful country people, walked through some stunning estates and landscapes, talked endlessly about conservation, farming, the state of the Nation, ranted and rallied about idiotic politicians and Government Policy. Unfortunately in his later seventies illness began to curtail his travelling and writing activities until cancer provided the full stop.
He was the traditional countryman never losing the focus of his roots; I and we have lost a character born of the countryside. At times he did like the last word and so after all those endless sentences which swept, ebbing and flowing like a tide, between us over many years, it is fitting that those words are Robin’s; taken from the final paragraph of the final chapter of The Hunting Gene - entitled Liberty! Equality! Lunacy! “If traditional farming and hunting are lost, then we lose many precious things: we lose woods and water-meadows, wildlife and wild flowers, bluebells and birdsong; we lose the brown hare, the red fox, and red deer, horse and hound, shepherd, farmer, blacksmith and huntsman. We lose a living, working countryside: we lose our culture and our way of life - but above all we lose our freedom”.
Nigel Housden - June 2023