INTRODUCTION

A welcome from Richard:

I've been around a long time and done lots of things, mostly good I hope but probably not all. In Glasgow University’s Dept of Zoology (as was) I worked for a PhD re-establishing the Cornish (Red-billed) Chough to England; its scientific name Pyrrhocorax translates as ‘Fire-raven’. I worked on this and Badger conservation for many decades along with general natural history, writing and illustration.

I began under my childhood hero (Sir) Peter Scott – founder of the World Wildlife Fund (as was = ‘aw’) – at The Wildfowl Trust (aw) before working with other rare animals in zoological collections elsewhere, and as a lowly assistant for the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (aw) in the Lake District.  I served on the (aw) Cornwall Trust for Nature Conservation Council and HM Government’s TB Consultative Panel (aw).  

I was a cinema projectionist in the good old pre-digital days of carbon arc projectors, a Primary School teacher and FE lecturer, cricket coach, coastal footpath restorer for Cornwall County Council, dignified with the job title ‘Roadman, Group B’, never reaching the heady heights of Group A (whatever that was). [All those aw’s illustrate my great age!]

But only my PhD was as demanding as Painting: the toughest things I’ve done (not counting one small class of weird children at a particular school in South Wales).  Direct expressionist painting is very tiring. My work is raw and deliberately unpolished, using much salvaged material for supports and frames in the belief that good art reflects the human condition, our relationship with the natural world and with each other.

As with visual art, so with writing: Poetry has become very important to me; I don’t really try to publish it, wanting to keep it as honest as possible. I am though an experienced author of a dozen published books and ~100 articles, many self-illustrated (publishers found me cheaper). The Fate of the Badger was republished in 2016.

Since then, I've completed a ca.250k trilogy, Omens and Havens which follows the development of a family of four indomitable children who fight the corruption and sadness which threatens their world. I see them as ‘dark green’ adventure stories for all intelligent ages.

The Children Who Wouldn’t...  published in 2013 has been re-worked as Grimbeard and the Solitaries. The two sequels are Darkness Under the Mountain (set in the Lake District) and “The Sort of Girl Things Happen To” which returns, to the dream-soaked island of the first, but in deep winter this time.

I have now completed a sequel, Picts and Wildcats – the 4th in the series – set in north-west Scotland, where I now live.

Here’s an illustration in the second story…

Richard Meyer is an artist, author and naturalist living and working in the Highlands of Scotland. Fire-raven Writing was founded in 2015 by a small band of enthusiasts to publish the second edition of Richard’s book, The Fate of the Badger, the proceeds from which help fund badger protection initiatives in the UK. This website features all of Richard’s writing, including his books, poetry and research.

The first two are based on real life events.  All three are trans-generational, seeking the child in the adult, and the imaginative adult in the child (the intelligent 11yr old - which is more or less how I see myself). Despite now having a publishing deal for Omens and Havens (Dixi Books), since my last one retired, I’m still seeking a literary agent who will take on my fourth and subsequent projects. Unfortunately, these tales are perceived as crossing child / adult genre boundaries, which seem to confuse some adults even though there are many such successful titles: Lord of the Flies comes to mind, as does A High Wind in Jamaica, even The Secret Garden. And weren’t we all children once?

I think my titles would sit happily alongside Alan Garner, Arthur Ransome and CS Lewis on any bookshelf; I’d like to add Philip Pullman, JRR Tolkein and JK Rowling but that might be too presumptuous.

I hope you have time to wander round this site and the other two.  And many thanks for reading this far. Please get in touch.

Richard

‘What had obviously once been a window was now boarded up with heavy planks’.

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