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.
-
St Patrick’s Day
On St Patrick’s connection with North Wales, and the debunking of a famous biogeographical myth.
-
Literary conventions
Photographers are not unsuccessful painters, and factual writers are not wannabe novelists.
-
The real Wuthering Heights
In which I rant about the West Yorkshire Pennines’ identity crisis.
-
Feel-good February
This disconcertingly mild winter, I’m going to enjoy February or die in the attempt.
-
2025: a year in photos
My fifteenth annual video slideshow.
-
Charles Darwin reviews Jane Austen
A short piece to mark the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth.
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
-
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
