HOT OFF THE PRESS! Dinosaurs is the latest title in the Time-Life Guides series (formerly the Nature Company Guides - see Rocks and Fossils below). Co-authored with four others under the stewardship of Michael Brett-Surman as the Consulting Editor, Dinosaurs is the most up-to-date book on the subject available for the older child or adult reader.

As with all other books in this series, Dinosaurs is lavishly illustrated and comprehensive, with text on all the relevant background information and detailed text on over 80 dinosaurs. There's also an extensive section on where dinosaurs can be seen both in museums and in the field.

The Reader's Digest Pathfinders Dinosaurs is part of a series written for middle to upper primary school aged children. It's a browser book with text broken into small packages accompanied by lavish illustrations and photographs.

It's as up-to-date as the publishing process permits! Included among the original illustrations is a hypothetical reconstruction of Deinonychus with feathers and pictures of dinosaurs such as Caudipteryx which was first published in the scientific literature less than a year before publication of this book!

I was co-author on Rocks and Fossils along with David Roots, Robert Conraads and Art Busbey. I was in charge of the palaeontological sections.

Rocks and Fossils was written for The Nature Company but has subsequently been published by Time/Life. Last I heard it had sold 150,000 copies in seven languages. It has received favourable reviews in Nature and New Scientist.

Rocks and Fossils is part of a series of books aimed at the general public with an interest in nature. It has both a theoretical coverage of many geological and palaeontological subjects as well as practical, hands-on information for readers who are interested in rock and fossil collecting as a hobby.

Dinosaurs was written for the National Geographic's My First Pocket Guide series of books produced for small children (6-9 years old). Such a young audience requires carefully produced, specifically targeted text that is rich in texture and clear in content. Despite the simplicity of the content, complex themes such as deep time and the evolution of dinosaurs through time were still included.

Rocks and Minerals was also written for National Geographic's My First Pocket Guide series. The text was divided into two parts dealing with rocks and minerals separately.

Rocks and Minerals was particularly challenging to write because most of the relevant information on the subject tends to be technical in nature requiring a reasonable level of assumed knowledge. With the help of the specialist editors at Weldon Owen, we were able to break this information down to a form that was more accessible to young children while still maintaining the integrity of the text.

I assisted in the writing and development of Tales from the Kangaroo's Crypt, an interactive CD ROM produced by Energee Entertainment, The Riversleigh Society, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the University of New South Wales for the Department of Communications and the Arts (Australian Federal Government).

I was also contracted to Firmware, a computer software company, to assist in the development of a computer game. The game featured dinosaurs throughout, and I was responsible for providing accurate technical information about dinosaurs.

Originally written as Dinosaurs of Southern Africa, I was asked to rewrite the text and expand the content to cover all the southern continents, thus increasing the book's potential appeal.

Dinosaurs of the Southern Continents was published by New Holland Press in 1995

The Young Discoveries Library was a series of books produced for The Nature Company by Weldon Owen. I was subject consultant on three titles in the series: Incredible Creatures, Mighty Dinosaurs and Things with Wings.

In the cases of Incredible Creatures and Things with Wings, I was asked to check and comment on a spread in each book that dealt with prehistoric animals. The rest of the text of these two books was mostly outside of my expertise so my contributions were restricted.

Mighty Dinosaurs had been commissioned to another author, Judith Simpson, and my role was to read and approve her text as well as provide comment on the many illustrations throughout the book.