# Richard Hamblyn

richard hamblyn (born 1965) is a British environmental writer and historian. He is a lecturer in the Department of English, Theatre and Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London, and has contributed to the Sunday Times, The Guardian, the Independent, the Times Literary Supplement and the London Review of Books.His books include The Invention of Clouds: How an Amateur Meteorologist Forged the Language of the Skies (2001, Picador, ISBN 978-0330391955), an account of the life and work of Luke Howard which won a 2001 Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was shortlisted for the 2002 Samuel Johnson Prize; Terra: Tales of the Earth (2009, Picador, ISBN 978-0330490733), a study of natural disasters, a BBC Wales Science Book of the Year; and an anthology of science writing, The Art of Science: a Natural History of Ideas (2011, Picador, ISBN 978-0330490764). He has also written four illustrated books on weather in association with the UK Met Office, including The Cloud Book (2008, ISBN 978-07153-28088); Extraordinary Clouds (2009, ISBN 978-07153-32818); and Extraordinary Weather (2012, ISBN 978-14463-01913), and edited Daniel Defoe's first book, The Storm (1704) for Penguin Classics (2005, ISBN 978-0141-43992-1).