Roger Deakin

Roger Stuart Deakin (born 11 February 1943 - 19 August 2006) was an English writer, documentary-maker and environmentalist. He was a co-founder and trustee of Common Ground, the arts, culture and environment organisation. Waterlog, the only book he published in his lifetime, topped the UK best seller charts.

Deakin was born in Watford, Hertfordshire, and was an only child. His father was a railway clerk, from Walsall in the Midlands, who died when Deakin was 17. Educated at The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, an independent school, based at the time in Hampstead in north west London, followed by Peterhouse, University of Cambridge, Deakin read English, under the auspices of writer Kingsley Amis.

Deakin first worked in advertising as a copywriter and creative director for Colman Prentis and Varley, while living in Bayswater, London. He was responsible for the National Coal Board slogan "Come home to a real fire". Following this, he taught French and English at Diss Grammar School for three years.

In 1968, he bought Walnut Tree Farm, a semi-ruined Elizabethan moated, wood beamed farmhouse on the edge of Mellis Common in Suffolk, near Diss, which he rebuilt and developed over many years and where he lived until his death. He dredged the moat, where he swam daily, planted woodland and bought more of the surrounding fields, where he grew hay and wild flowers. The land included several shepherds huts and Deakin went on to build a cabin for his son Rufus. The house was without central heating but housed an Aga and wide open fireplaces. A colony of swallows lived in the main chimney and for several years chickens and ducks shared his kitchen.

Deakin married Jenny Hind in 1973 with whom he had a son, Rufus, before the marriage was dissolved in 1982. Deakin died, aged 63, in Mellis, Suffolk. He had been diagnosed with a brain tumour only four months previously. He is survived by his partner Alison Hastie and his son. His archive has been given to the University of East Anglia, including writings on ancient trees, along with film banks, photographs, journals and Deakin's swimming trunks.Robert Macfarlane was Deakin's literary executor. He commented:

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