Peter Tolhurst obituary

My friend Peter Tolhurst, who has died aged 81, was a conservationist, author and publisher. In 1995 his fascination with local distinctiveness led him to create Black Dog Books for the publication of titles celebrating East Anglia’s cultural landscape. These included new works by Ronald Blythe, Elspeth Barker and Richard Mabey, who said he was “the pivotal figure in East Anglian literary culture”. Peter was born in Aldershot, Hampshire, during the second world war to Lilian (nee Jones), who was in the Women’s Land Army, and Alfred Tolhurst, who served in the Royal East Kent Regiment. After the war, the family moved to Sturry, near Canterbury. The aftermath of bombing raids on the historic city was the backdrop to Peter’s youth and influenced his later commitment to building conservation. He attended Simon Langton grammar school for boys, where his teacher, Harry Mountford, inspired Peter’s enduring interest in historic landscape. After studying geography at Durham University (1963-66) – the first of his family to pursue higher education – he completed a postgraduate degree in town planning at Nottingham Polytechnic (now Nottingham Trent University) and a fellowship in vernacular a