Philip Evans writes: One evening Oliver Rackham and I were the only two to be dining on the high table at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge: I was on an admissions panel the next morning. What could a humble clinical anatomist have in common with a renowned historian of landscape, forest and flora?
At soup I mentioned a large patch of Pyramidal orchids on a roadside verge that we look after where I live near the Suffolk town of Bungay, which happened to be Rackham’s birthplace. A flagrant pinky-puce in colour, once found this orchid is not forgotten. I was in consequence treated to a survey of the flora of Britain and Greece (especially Crete), and he entertained me on this subject until the end of the meal.
