As a newly trained secretary in 1977, my first “temp” job was with the publishers Richard Webb and Delian Bower, who had just produced the bestselling The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady. Richard was very kind.
We lost touch until 30 years later, when, as general secretary of the Open Spaces Society, I helped him to save from development Sugary Green, overlooking the River Dart, in his home town of Dartmouth. With all the energy and charm that I remembered, he succeeded in getting the land registered as a town green in 2011, and thus saved it permanently.
