Never judge a dinosaur book by its cover. The first edition of Naish and Barrett’s Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved, back in 2016, had an eye-wateringly dreadful example of NHM (London) stock image muck on its cover, but the book itself was excellent, as I noted at the time. While the art on The …
There are certain books that you’ll be absolutely certain you’ve seen before, but just can’t quite place where or how. This was just such a book for me. T. R. (Tyrannosaurus rex) & Friends was published in 1988, and would’ve still been hanging around in bookshops when I first got into dinosaurs as a child, …
There once existed a publisher named Starfish Books, based in the town of Cobham in Surrey, about 34 miles from where I live (driving via the A23/M23 and M25). They appear to have published children’s books (fiction and non-fiction) back in the 1970s, and then disappeared with very little trace. Whatever became of Starfish Books? …
October is typically a big month, with both Tetzoocon and the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology happening around this time. Add in the opening of the Picturing the Past exhibition of paleoart and we’ve had a huge month in paleontology. Let’s go! In the News First, a bit of sad news: the paleontological community mourns the …
It’s very seldom that I’ll buy a book having never read a review – never mind one where I have no idea what’s inside it. I came upon Dinosaurs: A Journey to the Lost Kingdom purely by chance in an independent bookshop in a nearby town, and found it hard to resist a cellophane-wrapped box …
Not for the first time, I’ve got hold of a book containing some very famous pieces of palaeoart and thought to myself ‘oh, of course these have been covered on the blog before’ – only to have a look and realise that they haven’t. In this case, I was sure that I’d reviewed The [London] …
If you’ve been reading the blog for some time now (and we have been going for a few years), you’ll know that our Vintage Dinosaur Art series often really stretches the definition of the word ‘vintage’, and hopefully you’ll have got over that fact. It’s a name that’s stuck. We do still have one rule, …
Not so long ago, an image did the rounds on the Media that is Social that appeared to be an illustration of Lystrosaurus, except that it was suffering from a severe case of the cephalothorax. It was apparently from a kids’ dinosaur book, and soon other illustrations from the book began to emerge. I was …
Back in the more innocent days of 2013, I wrote a couple of VDA posts on Album of Dinosaurs, a book with artwork that was excellent for its time (1972). Digging through the many, many scanned titles that Charles Leon has sent me (thanks Charles! Hope you’re well!), I came upon this one and was …
How would today’s animals fare if introduced to Mesozoic dinosaurs? It’s a scenario that’s been posited a number of times in print, sometimes with hilarious results. Fortunately, this title is completely free of atrocious Photoshop butchery and/or Dougal Dixon. Instead, this delightful 1992 book from Patricia Mullins features a series of charming illustrations produced using …