Garth Christian

Garth Hood Christian was an English nature writer, editor, teacher and conservationist.

Life

Christian was born in 1921 to Rev. Frederick Ewan Christian and Ethel Marian Trower Rogers in the Riddings, Derbyshire vicarage which had been occupied by his father and maternal grandfather, Rev. Henry Rogers, for almost 50 years. He was a member of the same family as Fletcher Christian. At the age of 18, he began contributing to The Guardians "Miscellany" column.
After becoming a full-time freelance writer, he wrote for newspapers and magazines including the Birmingham Post, Birmingham Evening Mail, Nottingham Guardian, The Times, Country Life and New Scientist. From 1950, he was editor of The Plough.
He wrote a number of books on conservation and ornithology, one of which, Down the Long Wind, had a jacket illustrated by Peter Scott.
As a school governor, he took the unusual step of becoming an honorary teacher of biology, one afternoon a week.
He died suddenly, aged 46, at his home in Beggar's Wood, North Chailey, Sussex.