A REBEL campaigner and author who was passionate about the Dorset countryside has died.

Rodney Legg, 64, lost his battle with cancer, his friends said.

Described as unpredictable and eccentric at times, Mr Legg was known to fight his corner with great gusto in his crusade to open up the countryside.

He wrote more than 120 books, mostly about Dorset and the local landscape.

As well as leading campaigns close to home, Mr Legg, who lived near Wincanton in Somerset, was at the forefront of bigger battles too in his role as chairman of the Open Spaces Society, a position he held for 20 years.

The society’s general secretary Kate Ashbrook said: “Rodney was an unusual but extremely effective campaigner. You could never predict what he would say or do, but people always listened to him.

“Although he was a huge irritation to the National Trust for many years, challenging its stuffy old ways, he made a difference, persuading it to open up secret properties and to become much more welcoming.

“He rarely wore a suit or tie, and arrived at formal meetings as though he was fresh from a Dorset exploration, always with an impish grin. He was impossible to ignore.”

Mr Legg’s friend Stewart Canham said he found Mr Legg ‘quite daunting’ when he first met him. His manner was very correct and he would tell you what’s what.

“As time went on we became very good friends,” he said.

Mr Canham, whose interest in wildlife photography led to him collaborating with Mr Legg on publications, added: “I once asked him how many books he had written and he replied ‘six feet, nine inches’ – the space they took on his bookshelf.”

Mr Legg was born in Bournemouth. He first worked as a newspaper reporter in Essex and went on to work on other publications in London before launching the Dorset County Magazine.

He contributed to numerous other titles, set up the Dorset Publishing Company to publish his history and walking guide books, as well as lecturing in journalism at Weymouth College, and later at Bournemouth University.

Mr Legg launched a series of high-profile campaigns including pressuring the Ministry of Defence into giving public access to the Lulworth military range.

His funeral will be held at the Higher Ground Meadow natural burial site, near Corscombe on Saturday. The service begins at 3.30pm.

People wishing to attend are asked to contact Kate Ashbrook at the Open Spaces Society on 01491 573535.