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Dr Richard Hamblyn

Positions held:
  • Senior Lecturer, School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
  • Overview

    Overview

    Biography

    I am聽an environmental writer and historian, with a particular interest in the cultural cross-currents that run between the arts and the sciences. My books include聽The Invention of Clouds, which won the 2002 Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize; Terra: Tales of the Earth (2009), a study of natural disasters, and The Art of Science: a Natural History of Ideas (2011), an anthology of readable science writing from the Babylonians to the Higgs boson. I've also written聽several illustrated books on weather in association with the UK Met Office, and edited Daniel Defoe's first book, The Storm (1704) for Penguin Classics (2005).

    More recently, my monograph聽Clouds: Nature and Culture, came out in 2017, with a companion volume,聽The Sea: Nature and Culture, published in 2021. Current writing projects include a history of meteorology and a book of (mostly) true stories about real and imagined places.聽

    Highlights

    • Here is a link to an animated short I wrote for TedEd about the naming of clouds in 1802:

    • And here is a that I wrote and recorded for BBC Radio 3's 'The Essay' series.聽

    • You can read a fun聽London Review of Books essay review on the life cycle of the Atlantic salmon here:

    • Here's a 聽I wrote about the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins's letters describing聽the Krakatoa sunsets of 1883.

    Web profiles

    Professional memberships

    • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (since 2011)

  • Research

    Research

    Research interests

    • Creative Non-fiction
    • Weather and climate
    • Environmental writing
    • Nature and culture
  • Supervision and teaching

    Supervision and teaching

    Supervision

    Supervisions within 糖心logo入口:
    4

    I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students who are interested in undertaking research in any area of environmental writing / cultural geography.聽Prospective PhD students should submit an informal inquiry, followed by a proposal of 2,000-4,000 words, including an indicative bibliography.

    Doctoral alumni since 2013-14

    • GOLNOOSH NOURPANAH
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor, to
      Awarded:
      2019
    • LEE CHRISTIEN
      Nature of supervision:
      Principal Supervisor,
      Title of thesis:
      Captives of Classification: Unlocking the Representations of Animals from the Daily Occurrences, Library, and Cages of London Zoo.
      Awarded:
      2021
    • LILY DUNN
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor,
      Awarded:
      2023
    • MELANIE JONES
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor,
      Awarded:
      2025

    Teaching

    I teach on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules in English, Theatre, and Creative Writing, mostly in the realm of prose non-fiction, but also venturing into fiction and other forms, including poetry, graphic works and verbatim drama. 

    Teaching modules

    • Storytelling: Narrative Archetypes, Forms and Techniques
    • Creative Non-Fiction
    • The Arts: Perspectives and Possibilities
    • Narrative Methods
    • Fiction Workshop 1
  • Publications

    Publications

    Article

    • Hamblyn, Richard (2022) . The Passenger (20), pp. 30-45.
    • Hamblyn, Richard (2022) . Weather 77 (11), pp. 376-379. ISSN 1477-8696.
    • Hamblyn, Richard (2019) . The Mechanics Institute Review (16), pp. 1-14.
    • Hamblyn, Richard (2019) . Countryfile (154), pp. 56-60. ISSN 1752-7287.
    • Prata, F. and Robok, A. and Hamblyn, Richard (2018) . Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 99, pp. 1378-1390. ISSN 0003-0007.
    • Hamblyn, Richard (2014) . Sinn und Form 66 (3), pp. 375-378. ISSN 0037-5756.
    • Hamblyn, Richard (2009) . Journal of Historical Geography 35 (2), pp. 223-236. ISSN 0305-7488.
    • Hamblyn, Richard (2008) . Romanticism 14 (2), pp. 108-118. ISSN 1354-991X.

    Book

    • Hamblyn, Richard (2021) . Earth. London: Reaktion Books. ISBN 9781789144871.
    • Hamblyn, Richard (2021) . Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 9781446308905.
    • Hamblyn, Richard (2017) . Earth. London, UK: Reaktion Books. ISBN 9781780237237.
    • Hamblyn, Richard (2014) . Earth. London, UK: Reaktion. ISBN 9781780233475.
    • Hamblyn, Richard (2011) . London: Picador. ISBN 9780330490764.
    • Hamblyn, Richard and Callanan, M.J. (2010) . London, UK: Slade Press. ISBN 9780903305044.
    • Hamblyn, Richard (2009) . London: Picador. ISBN 9780330490733.
    • Hamblyn, Richard (2002) . London, UK: Picador. ISBN 978033039195502.

    Book review

    • Hamblyn, Richard (2021) .
    • Hamblyn, Richard (2019) .
    • Hamblyn, Richard (2019) .
    • Hamblyn, Richard (2018) .
    • Hamblyn, Richard (2017) .
    • Hamblyn, Richard (2016) .
    • Hamblyn, Richard (2015) .

    Book section

    • Hamblyn, Richard (2025) . In: Graham, E. (ed.) Clouds: How to Identify Nature鈥檚 Most Fleeting Forms. Princeton, U.S.: Princeton University Press. pp. 6-10. ISBN 9780691262482.
    • Hamblyn, Richard (2022) . In: BBC Proms Guide 2022. BBC Publications. pp. 104-107. ISBN 9781912114115.
    • Hamblyn, Richard (2014) . In: Green, A. (ed.) The Public Domain Review Selected Essays: The First Three Years: 2011-2013. Cambridge, UK: PDR Press. pp. 146-153. ISBN 9772056953005.
    • Hamblyn, Richard and Southam, J. (2012) . In: The River - Winter. London, UK: Mack Books. pp. 87-94. ISBN 9781907946288.

    Letter

    • Hamblyn, Richard (2016) . Issues in Science and Technology 32 (3), National Academy of Sciences (US); Wiley. ISSN 0748-5492.