@tjdhalliday.bsky.social
Author of OTHERLANDS (Foyle's Book of the Year 2022), currently writing a second. Palaeontologist, sometime TV quizzer, international croquet player, lapsed choral singer.
10 copies of Otherlands Illustrated, with big dinosaur eyes on the cover, in which is reflected a fabulous scene of rearing sauropods. Ferns adorn the cover, and one book is open showing the story of the asteroid at the last mass extinction.
Ever get the feeling you're being watched?
Publication day for the Illustrated Otherlands - get your own copy at all bookshops, or get your local library to order one and borrow it!
Would you look at that? Only three days to go until the UK release. And if you don't have a local bookshop you can use, why not support a small independent by ordering your books at this link?
uk.bookshop.org/p/books/othe...
Please share!! ππΌ
Want to see where the science of geology began? Then help us build the Deep Time Trail!
One week to go until this beauty is out in the world!
Pre-order now or go to your nearest bookshop, where if they don't have it, they'll order one in.
www.penguin.co.uk/books/453616...
From the top of a little hill in the centre, the glass Harpa building looking sleek and modern, dark and glassy, next to a building made to resemble lots of sedimentary rock layers with strange long horizontal windows peeking between them. There are ships in the harbour behind, hills far away, people going for walks.
I mean, seriously, Iceland. I've not even had time to leave the city but you're still just so nice to be in.
Thanks for inviting me, and I'll be back.
HallgrΓmskirkja, the big Lutheran church that dominates the skyline from all directions. It looks like a sine wave of basalt columns rising to the clock tower. In front, a statue to Leifr Eiriksson, the leader of the first European group to land in North America. Above, *such* blue sky.
The Althing, the Icelandic parliament building that now houses a parliament that has met for almost all of the last 1000 years. In front, there is a stone with The Black Cone of Civil Disobedience, to remind people of their right to protest, disrupt, and revolt against unfair government. The artwork shows a black cone pointing down into and apparently splitting a large grey boulder in two.
The view from the shore in Reykjavik is of beautiful bays and distant mountains covered with sunlight.
The conference was in Harpa, the concert hall. The walls, shown here from the inside, are like a honeycomb of glass windows, each pane of glass slightly offset at different angles so that the light passes through differently. Here, some seem totally transparent, and others appear a bit yellow.
I've spent the last couple of days in Reykjavik at the Umhverfisthing (Environmental Assembly). Lots of visions of climatic and Environmental hope, great engagement with the community. From the architecture to the food to the people, Iceland has quickly become one of my favourite countries.
17.09.2025 09:42 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0Attendees of #SVP2025 #2025SVP: registration now open for two special events:
Friday night authorsβ event & book signing with @elsa-panciroli.bsky.social @endofthepier.bsky.social & @tjdhalliday.bsky.social chaired by Tom Holland!
Spaces limited - check your email for how to register!
(2/2)
The oldest team in the competition, but one with plenty of experience and the best Scotland squad ever. In the picture, Stephen Wright, our #1 for the competition, and Scotland's first ever international croquet player, having started as a teenager in the 1970s. Martin Murray, our captain and Scotland's most capped player who was top 5 in the world in the 80s and is still formidable. And Mark Shanks, Stefan Colling, and Thomas Halliday, three players who have been voted most improved over the last few years. Gie's but the mallets, we've the will. Auld Scotland counts for something yet.
Anyone in the Brighton area should come and watch some of the Golf Croquet World Team Championships (Tier 2). 5th-10th of August, Sussex County Croquet Club.
Fierce competition between 12 countries to get promotion to the top tier in four years time - and Scotland are in with an outside shot!
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Nothing is preventing adult you from eating it up too!
07.07.2025 19:04 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
A child sitting on the sofa totally engrossed in Otherlands, the illustrated edition.
A double page spread of the book featuring a cartoon strip style story about a nesting Caudipteryx.
A double page spread of a book featuring a panoramic view of Pliocene Africa, complete with early hominids, elephants, giant otters, sivatheres, and many others.
π¨Exciting newsπ¨
The illustrated version of Otherlands has appeared through my letterbox!
The art by Gavin Scott is just beautiful, with more than 100 pages of scenes, stories, and guides to bring the past to life.
Perfect for readers aged 7-11, but also for anyone who just wanted more pictures!
Not going to name any names, but I've just turned down the chance to be a talking head on a prospective palaeo show because it turned out that they wanted to have *all* the CGI reconstructions be done by AI.
I'm lost for words at the laziness...
It was an absolute pleasure reading this and all the other submissions to the Nine Dots Prize. Very much looking forward to seeing the finished product once Grace's book is published.
10.06.2025 17:52 β π 2 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0You're very welcome, and how nice to be in that part of the world. I spent a few days on and around Loch Tay a week or so ago. An inspiring landscape!
Thanks very much for saying such kind things - it's responses like this that make writing feel more worthwhile than just throwing ideas into a void!
I'm just learning that a synonym of narrative nonfiction is 'verfabula', which is excellent.
21.02.2025 14:55 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Ooh, I've not logged into BlueSky for a long time, so just saw this. I don't know that there is a particular term for this in the context of nature writing, to be honest. It's certainly narrative non-fiction. Science fiction feels ... close but not quite right? But I think that's subjective.
21.02.2025 14:54 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
The latest translation of Otherlands is now out - in Brazilian Portuguese. If that appeals to you or your Brazilian friends, you can get it here and elsewhere.
www.planetadelivros.com.br/livro-outros...
It was something of a last minute one! I suspect the more modern ones will win, but I do better with the stricter forms, because it feels more like a discovery of the poem than the overwhelming total free range of all language.
Technically, this form is a tritina.
Delighted to find out I've been shortlisted for a science poetry prize (thanks to @toriherridge.bsky.social for alerting me to the competition some time ago). Prizes announced next week, but I'd be surprised if I get anything...
www.thebrilliantpoetry.com/inspiration-2
For my current book project, I'm looking for an illustrator who can in particular make evocative palaeomaps.
They will have to be black and white for printing, and cover a variety of scales from global to local - I'd obviously give direction on that front.
Can anyone recommend someone to contact?
