I’m a writer and photographer based in Hebden Bridge in the West Yorkshire Pennines.
My interests include the natural world, the British countryside, science in general, and Charles Darwin in particular. I combined these interests in my first book, On the Moor: Science, History and Nature on a Country Walk.
I’m currently working on a book about looking at the world Through Darwin’s Eyes.
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On the Rocks, April 2026
Some unexpected thrills sitting on what remains of my favourite Anglesey rock.
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Lichen timelapse
A project to take photographs of the same lichen over many years.
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When rocks take a walk
In which I follow the trail of an itinerant rock!
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Corresponding with Sir David Attenborough
In which the great science communicator fails to resolve an important dispute about fish.
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Read-later triage
How I filter my read-later bookmarks into notes, posts and newsletters.
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frant (v., n.)
Oystercatchers are in a permanent state of frant.
Sign up for my free newsletters
Richard Carter’s newsletters
RICH TEXT: My personal newsletter about science, history and nature writing.
DARWIN NEWSLETTER: Celebrating the grandeur in Charles Darwin’s view of life.
Latest newsletters
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Rich Text newsletter No. 37: ‘These people knew mammoths!’
Ice age art • Robert Macfarlane • Kathleen Jamie • medieval poems • lichen • Barbarian Conspiracy • the Shipping Forecast • escaping the entropy • and more…
- Darwin the botanist • UNESCO recognition • Darwin’s address book • Charles Lyell • Leonard Jenyns • punctuated equilibria • what the heck are chins for? • and lots more…
Buy my book
On the Moor: science, history and nature on a country walk
Carter is an entertaining and well-read author. His work is filled with poetry, literature, history, and wider theoretical discussions and the humour is never forced upon the reader […] Bookshops are filled these days with books about nature. Few of them understand that nature is an interaction between human society and the wider world. Richard Carter’s walks and rumination remind us of the connectivity between all things, and they might lead you up a path, onto a moor and a walk to touch a trig point.
—Resolute Reader blog
