Ian Langford, who has died of oesophageal cancer aged 61, was a conservationist and publisher with a special interest in wildlife art. He showcased the work of artists who were also passionate about conservation, such as John Threlfall and Carry Akroyd. The Langford Press art books he issued were sumptuous large-format volumes packed with pictures and sketches based on the patient observation of natural landscapes and animals.
Modest, generous, always brimming with ideas, Langford was a man of many parts. He was first and foremost an ornithologist, but served a long apprenticeship as a trainee craftsman, and also spent some time as a community tutor in Scotland. For several years, he and his wife, Angela, ran a specialist book shop in Wigtown, an experience that led to the establishment of Langford Press in 2001.
The home-based press operated in the burgeoning field of contemporary wildlife art. Langford wanted to publish books that highlighted work in nature conservation, but were also among the best examples of the genre. Artists were given virtual carte blanche to develop the book in their own way, in Langford’s words, “performing the dual roles of artist and author”. The inclusion of preparatory sketches was encouraged in order to give the reader greater understanding of the artist’s sources of inspiration and method of working. The artist was given total freedom on what to include. In effect each book in the Langford Press Wildlife Art Series was an exhibition in print.
Among the artists whose work Langford brought to wider attention were Akroyd, Donald Watson, Jonathan Latimer, Chris Rose and Richard Tratt. Arctic Flight: Adventures Among Northern Birds by James McCallum was voted British Birds magazine’s book of the year for 2007. In the Guardian, Stephen Moss singled out In a Natural Light by Rose, and Cutting Away, a book of linocut artwork by Robert Gillmor, as his favourite nature books for 2005 and 2006 respectively. Langford himself was particularly proud of There and Back, published in 2011, a collaboration between artists and conservationists that highlighted the plight of birds on migration.
Success encouraged Langford Press to branch out into other aspects of wildlife publishing. A separate series was books on wildlife art techniques by Lisa Hooper and John Busby. Langford’s Wildlife and People series included On the Rocks, a lifelong study of the gannet by Bryan Nelson, and a multi-author appreciation of the life and work of the naturalist Derek Ratcliffe. He reprinted facsimile copies of a number of Charles Darwin’s works, including his famous (but hitherto inaccessible) books on pollination and insectivorous plants. He even forayed into “wee books” for children with titles including Belle the Barn Owl and Gowk the Cuckoo.
Relations between subject and publisher were always informal. When someone suggested drawing up a contract, Langford would reply, in his thickest Black Country accent, “naw, I just publish books – I don’t need contracts”.
Langford was born in Birmingham. His father, Bert, was a toolmaker while his mother, Jean, owned a small business selling wool and women’s clothes. Ian left school at 16 for a four-year craft apprenticeship at Brooklyn Technical College (now Birmingham Metropolitan College), specialising in machine woodworking, while also attending evening classes in social and natural sciences.
This led to a degree in psychology at Hull University in 1982. After working as a foreman in a Birmingham joinery company, and then as a bar and shop fitter, he found his real niche in Scotland as an ornithologist, working first for the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club, then as a “roving field worker” for the RSPB, and finally as an area officer based in Galloway for Scottish Natural Heritage.
From 1997 he and Angela ran the Book Corner in Wigtown, specialising in natural history, conservation and gardening. Simultaneously they established and developed the Tropic House, near Newton Stewart, with its display of carnivorous plants and free-flying butterflies, which won a gold medal from the Royal Horticultural Society in 1989. They also planted an orchard with Scottish apple varieties and dug wildlife ponds.
As their interest in publishing grew, the Langfords moved to Peterborough, and later to Narborough in Norfolk. To supplement his income Langford also worked for Natural England, based in Peterborough, as a kind of jack-of-all-trades, as a technical adviser, a team leader in animal ecology and finally as the “delivery leader” for NE’s Countdown 2010 project in which he approved and awarded £5m for conservation projects. He also managed to find time to teach silversmith techniques at Peterborough City College. He was a lifelong supporter of West Bromwich Albion.
Langford became adept at juggling all his different roles, but in later years there was barely room on employment forms for his full CV. As he expressed it on his website, he tried all his life “to do things I enjoy and feel are worth doing, and avoid doing everything else”.
He married Angela (nee Cox) in 1983. She and their daughter, Zoe, survive him.
• Ian Keith Langford, ornithologist and publisher, born 16 February 1956; died 9 December 2017
