Author, presenter and palaeontologist Richard Fortey dies aged 79

Author, television presenter and palaeontologist Richard Fortey died on Friday 7th March aged 79 following a short battle with cancer, his publisher William Collins has announced “with great sadness”.

Fortey was a world-leading scientist, an expert in arthropods, “especially his beloved trilobites”, and had a long career as head of palaeontology at the Natural History Museum.

He was also president of the Geological Society in its bi-centennial year 2007 and was awarded the Michael Faraday Award by the Royal Society. The publisher added: “He was also a born communicator, especially about the natural world.”

His books included his “magnum opus”, Life: An Unauthorised Biography (1997), which was cited by John Gribbin as “the best natural history of the first four billion years of life on earth”. Fortey played a starring role in Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything, leading Bryson to deem him “without peer among science writers”, and his books “dazzling”.

“We are immensely proud to have been his publisher since the 1990s, with his latest book published only last autumn: Close Encounters of a Fungal Kind, a stunning appreciation of all things mushroom,” William Collins’ tribute continues.

“His writing garnered him many literary prizes and short-listings plus rave review attention from critics. Trilobite! An Eyewitness to Evolution was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize. His mischievous wit was also on display in Dry Store Room No 1, his love letter to the Natural History Museum and its many eccentricities, as well as a number of anonymously published humorous books, including a spoof on how to solve the Rubik’s Cube.

“Commissioned by the BBC to write and present a number of TV documentaries, he used the fee paid to purchase a small wood near his home in the Chilterns. This gave him enormous pleasure – and became the subject of his book A Wood Through the Trees in which he studied the wood as an ecosystem, calling on various expert colleagues to study lichens or bees or moths – and of course his beloved fungi.”

Fortey received an OBE in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to palaeontology and geology. He appeared in several of David Attenborough’s programmes, and in 2014 presented the BBC Four series Fossil Wonderlands: Nature’s Hidden Treasures, followed by The Magic of Mushrooms.

In 2016, he presented the BBC Four programme Nature’s Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution, a three-part series on evolution on islands.

Arabella Pike, publishing director at William Collins, said: “Richard will be so missed and remembered dearly for his enthusiasm, expertise and warm good humour and the insight he always gave into the intricacies of life in all its forms.”

Friend Jean Garon said: "We were so blessed to have Richard Fortey to champion our magical ancient Lambridge Woods beloved by the people of Henley and the surrounding small Chiltern villages.  He immortalized the woods and brought them alive for readers, and lovers of the countryside worldwide. How we miss him already.  A brilliant man so in tune with nature, how lucky were we locals to have him living in our midst."

If you would like to share a tribute to Richard Fortey, please contact lauren.brown@thebookseller.com.