Thomas Halliday
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tjdhalliday.bsky.social
Thomas Halliday
@tjdhalliday.bsky.social
210 followers 84 following 22 posts
Author of OTHERLANDS (Foyle's Book of the Year 2022), currently writing a second. Palaeontologist, sometime TV quizzer, international croquet player, lapsed choral singer.
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Reposted by Thomas Halliday
richardjbutler.bsky.social
Challenging weather & transport conditions for our evening authors’ event, but wonderful to hear Tom Holland in conversation with @elsa-panciroli.bsky.social @endofthepier.bsky.social & @tjdhalliday.bsky.social #2025SVP
November 14, 2025 at 8:56 PM
tjdhalliday.bsky.social
Lovely review of the illustrated Otherlands from LoveReading4Kids (an online bookshop which donates some of the revenue to school libraries).

"A star of stars", "an absolute gem"

www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/book/9780241...
Otherlands by Thomas Halliday
Otherlands (ISBN: 9780241611203) Travel back through time and discover strange and incredible lands with this absolutely stunning gift of a book. A star of stars.
www.lovereading4kids.co.uk
November 13, 2025 at 1:13 PM
tjdhalliday.bsky.social
Looking forward to joining all the vertebrate palaeontology shenanigans at #2025SVP #SVP2025 in Birmingham for one day only on Friday. I'm sad I can't be there all week, but it's the first time I'll have made it since Albuquerque. Find me and say hello!
November 11, 2025 at 10:49 AM
tjdhalliday.bsky.social
Fungus spotting in Gobion's Wood this half term, where we found about 25 species (of apparently about 550!)
Brown roll-rim mushroom. Classic golf tee shape, brown with speckly white edge to the head. Deadly. Alder bracket. Ridges of fungus that look a bit like melted yellow wax sprinkled in cocoa powder on the side of a tree stump by a pond. Candlesnuff. A weird little fungus that looks like a moose antler with black main stalks and white tips. Just a couple of centimetres tall and surrounded with fallen leaves but very pretty. Too small for anyone to bother trying to eat.
November 3, 2025 at 7:19 PM
tjdhalliday.bsky.social
Otherlands Illustrated has been shortlisted for 2025 Children's Book of the Year!!

Come to the Christmas Evening at Foyles on Charing Cross Road on the 27th of November to find out if it's won! Event is FREE and there will be lots of authors signing books.

www.foyles.co.uk/highlights/f...
www.foyles.co.uk
November 3, 2025 at 2:54 PM
tjdhalliday.bsky.social
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!
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.
September 25, 2025 at 4:12 PM
tjdhalliday.bsky.social
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...
Otherlands: An illustrated journey through Earth’s lost worlds
An illustrated journey through Earth’s lost worlds
uk.bookshop.org
September 22, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Thomas Halliday
elsa-panciroli.bsky.social
Please share!! 🙏🏼
Want to see where the science of geology began? Then help us build the Deep Time Trail!
scottishgeology.bsky.social Scottish Geology Trust @scottishgeology.bsky.social · Sep 19
Help make the Deep Time Trail a reality - donate now!
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/siccar-point
An artist's impression of the proposed viewpoint at the end of the Deep Time Trail might look on the cliffs above Siccar Point.
September 22, 2025 at 10:20 AM
tjdhalliday.bsky.social
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...
Otherlands
Step onto volcanic plains and watch thundering herds of dinosaurs crash through thick forests. Dive into a sea of glass reefs, emerging from the water to see monkeys fighting for survival on an acci...
www.penguin.co.uk
September 18, 2025 at 9:29 AM
tjdhalliday.bsky.social
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.
Hallgrímskirkja, 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.
September 17, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Reposted by Thomas Halliday
richardjbutler.bsky.social
Attendees of #SVP2025 #2025SVP: registration now open for two special events:

Friday night authors’ 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)
September 5, 2025 at 9:39 PM
tjdhalliday.bsky.social
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!

🔵🔴⚫🟡
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.
August 4, 2025 at 9:15 AM
tjdhalliday.bsky.social
🚨Exciting news🚨
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!
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.
July 7, 2025 at 4:34 PM
tjdhalliday.bsky.social
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...
July 7, 2025 at 4:19 PM
tjdhalliday.bsky.social
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.
ninedotsprize.org The Nine Dots Prize @ninedotsprize.org · Jun 3
We are delighted to announce that the winner of the 2024/25 Nine Dots Prize is Stanford lecturer and science journalist Grace Huckins, for their “exceptional” response to the question ‘Is data failing us?’

@crasshlive.bsky.social @cambridgeup.bsky.social
June 10, 2025 at 5:52 PM
tjdhalliday.bsky.social
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...
Outros mundos - Thomas Halliday | PlanetadeLivros
Outros mundos, de Thomas Halliday. EXPLORE AS ORIGENS DA TERRA POR MEIO DE UMA JORNADA FABULOSA
www.planetadelivros.com.br
December 16, 2024 at 3:23 PM
tjdhalliday.bsky.social
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
Shortlist — Brilliant Poetry
www.thebrilliantpoetry.com
November 4, 2024 at 10:08 AM
tjdhalliday.bsky.social
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?
August 21, 2024 at 2:14 PM