Nan Fairbrother

Nan Fairbrother – Life, Career, and Inspirational Voice

Explore the life and legacy of Nan (Nancy Mary) Fairbrother (1913–1971), English writer, lecturer, and environmental thinker. Dive into her works on landscape, her philosophy, memorable quotes, and lasting impact in planning and ecology.

Introduction

Nan Fairbrother (1913–1971) stands out as a thoughtful voice in mid-20th century writing on landscape, environment, and the human relationship with place. Though she is lesser known in popular culture, her works such as New Lives, New Landscapes continue to influence planners, landscape architects, and environmental thinkers. Her writing bridges the poetic and the practical—addressing how we live in land, how we shape gardens, and how we might plan with sensitivity to nature’s rhythms.

Early Life and Education

Nan (Nancy Mary) Fairbrother was born in Coventry, England in 1913. She attended the University of London, where she graduated with honors in English.

After completing her education, Fairbrother initially worked as a hospital physiotherapist before eventually moving to London and turning to writing and lecturing. In 1939, she married William McKenzie, a physician. Their son, Dan McKenzie, became a notable geophysicist who played a key role in developing plate tectonic theory.

During the Second World War, with her husband serving in the Royal Air Force, Fairbrother relocated with her children to Buckinghamshire. It was during this period, experiencing displacement, domestic responsibility, and a new rhythm of life, that she wrote her first notable book Children in the House (published 1954).

These early experiences—of disruption, caring, and the need to dwell with awareness—shaped much of her later work.

Career & Major Works

Nan Fairbrother’s writing focused on landscape, land use, and the human relationship to landscapes. She was also a lecturer and a member of the UK Institute of Landscape Architects (now the Landscape Institute). Her brother, Rex (James Alick) Fairbrother, was himself a landscape architect.

Key Publications

Here are some of her important works:

• Children in the House (1954) — her first book, reflecting on wartime domestic life. (Published in the U.S. as An English Year)

• Men and Gardens (1956) — a book about how people relate to gardens and the personal nature of garden spaces.

• The Cheerful Day (1960) — exploring daily life and emotional landscapes.

• The House (1965) (U.S. edition The House in the Country) — about dwelling, architecture, and the psychological implications of living in place.

• New Lives, New Landscapes (1970) — perhaps her most celebrated work. It is a visionary account of challenges of land use, population pressures, and how landscapes must evolve with human lives.

• The Nature of Landscape Design (published posthumously in 1974) — discussing landscape design as art, craft, and social necessity.

• Connexions (Puffin, 1974) and Shelter (Penguin Education, 1972) are also listed in posthumous bibliographies.

Her writings span from prose reflections to thoughtful treatises on planning, landscape architecture, and human ecology.

Historical & Intellectual Context

Fairbrother’s period of writing (1950s–1970) was a time of rapid transformation in postwar Britain: urban expansion, suburban growth, changes in agriculture, mobility, and shifts in how people related to land and home. She challenged the modernist approach of “land as blank canvas” and instead argued for continuity, layered history, and sensitivity to place.

In New Lives, New Landscapes, she projected future challenges in land use and advocated that landscapes must accommodate evolving human needs—not by domination, but by stewardship. Her book was later voted one of the top five books for landscape architects by the Landscape Institute in 2010.

Her style lies between the poetic and the analytical—she was comfortable reflecting on human emotions, memory, and loss, while also wrestling with planning, ecology, and design.

Legacy & Influence

Nan Fairbrother is respected today among landscape architects, planners, and environmental thinkers, though she is less known to general audiences. Her legacy includes:

• The Fairbrother Group / Urban Wildlife Network, named in her memory, which fosters urban ecology and biodiversity initiatives.

• Continued reference to New Lives, New Landscapes in planning, ecological design, and scholarship.

• Influence in thinking about human–nature relationships, especially in British landscape planning circles.

Her approach argues that beauty, memory, utility, and wellbeing must be woven into how we live on land—not as afterthoughts, but as integral elements.

Personality & Philosophy

Fairbrother can be characterized as a sensitive observer, someone attuned to the subtle layers of place, memory, and change. Her work reveals:

• A belief in landscape as lived experience, not merely as visual design

• A skepticism of purely utilitarian planning divorced from history or poetry

• A sense that dwelling—home, garden, surroundings—is a psychological as well as physical act

• Willingness to embrace tension: between growth and restraint, between human need and ecological limits

Her writing often addresses loss (of home, of place), the urgency of choices, and the cumulative weight of small gestures in how we shape land.

Famous Quotes

Here are some notable quotes attributed to Nan Fairbrother, drawn from her works and collected sources:

“We are perverse creatures and never satisfied.”
“The sorrows of children are profound and unsuspected.”
“It is always one of the tragedies of any relationship, even between people sensitive to each other’s moods, that the moments of emotion so rarely coincide.”
“I have reached the stage now where luxury is not in fine possessions but in carefree possessions, and the greatest luxury of all would be the completely expendable.”
“Most of us are experts at solving other people’s problems … the advice we give is seldom for other people but for ourselves.”
“The urgent crowds out the essential.”

These reflect her sensitivity to human interior life, to priorities, and her subtle critique of excess and distraction.

Lessons from Nan Fairbrother

From her life and writings, here are some lessons we might draw:

1. See the everyday as meaningful. She invites us to notice how gardens, houses, seasons, and paths carry emotional weight.

2. Balance utility with poetry. Good planning must serve function and root us in place.

3. Preserve continuity. Rather than erasing the old, she advocates building with memory and pattern.

4. Make small gestures count. In landscapes and life, small choices often accumulate greater effects.

5. Attend to inner landscapes. Her writing suggests that how we live within (emotionally, spiritually) influences how we live on land.

Conclusion

Nan Fairbrother may not be widely known today, but her voice remains vital in conversations about how we live with land, how we plan landscapes, and how we dwell with empathy and responsibility. Her writing bridges human interiority and ecological design, reminding us that every house, garden, or path carries memory, care, and intention. Her lessons are especially timely in an era of rapid change and environmental tension.