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.200k quartet of stories, 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 grown-ups.

The Children Who Wouldn’t ...  published in 2013 has been re-worked as The Stone Thowers. The two sequels, provisionally titled, 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. And 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…

The first two are based on real life events. All four 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). I now have a publishing deal for The Stone Throwers to be published in late October this year (in good time for Christmas) see link on our Home page or click https://t.co/NKh54C5RMK

Since my last one retired, I’m still seeking a literary agent who will take on the rest of the series and subsequent projects. For example, I'm very keen to write the account of my chough adventures, thinking to call it 'Chasing choughs'. Unfortunately, my fiction is 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 they’d sit comfortably alongside Alan Garner, Arthur Ransome and CP Snow 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’.

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.

NEW BOOK PUBLISHED!

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