"Look at it this way"

I've been reading quite a bit about a man called Hugh Miller in the last few weeks. He was a geologist and storyteller and had a fascinating life. Now you have a chance to sail through the Scottish Highlands on a voyage of discovery... The voyage is being organised by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. The Geological Societies of Glasgow and Edinburgh are offering unique opportunity for young Earth scientists to follow the journey of Hugh Miller in "The Cruise of the Betsey". On 6 September 2014 Leader, a wonderful old Brixham Trawler built in 1892 ( www.trinitysailing.org/vessels/leader/ ), will set sail from Oban heading north for the Small Isles in a one-week voyage in homage to Hugh Miller and his Hebridean tours, described in his classic book "The Cruise of the Betsey". The boat sleeps 19 people including 4 crew members, and will be filled with an inter-generational mix of geologists, geographers, artists, writers, ecologists, storytellers and histor...

Author copies of my new book for Collins have just arrived. Aimed at KS2/3 boys to get them reading, but also readable by all age groups and girls too...

I'm about to head into a catch-up of the first three seasons of Game of Thrones , as the 4th season starts on Sky Atlantic. I don't have Sky, so this is my option for catching up with a lot of my colleagues... I've got a large poster map for my classroom wall, and a proposed unit on mapping of fictional landscapes, which will also form part of my presentation at the SAGT conference later in the year. There's also been a rise in tourism in Iceland and Northern Ireland: two of the key locations where the series is made. (Thanks to Rebekah Chew for the tipoff here) Iceland's tourist board says it's seen an increase in the number of people wanting to go on tours of locations where the show was shot. While, the film industry in Northern Ireland says it's helped increase employment in the area. But it's also helped spread the country's cinematic reputation around the world. Meanwhile I've got the first book on my Kindle, and am looking ...

A couple of years ago, my book ' The Ice Man' was published, telling the story of Otzi the Ice Man, whose body was found high up in the Alps following the melting of a glacier which had covered his body for millennia. The steady melting of ice cover in many locations around the world is revealing bodies that are sadly far younger than that... The most recent discovery was reported this morning in the Telegraph , and tells the story of Jonathan Conville, who disappeared on the Matterhorn in 1979. I wonder what other discoveries remain to be made as other ice masses melt away. Finally, don't forget that Matt Podbury is developing a nice scheme based on my book.