And today's featured bookshop is...

 ... Booth's in Hay on Wye, where two friends, unknown to each other, recently spotted 'The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire' on display.

Italian Edition out now

The Italian edition of The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire is out now, from Einaudi Editore. My friend Telmo Pievani interviewed me about it for Corriere della Serra, for which more here.

TikTok Trends

Apparently The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire is trending on TikTok. Who knew? Thanks to Prof S. B. of Edinburgh for this image.

Something For The Weekend?

Some good news to end the week. The paperback of The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire comes out in paperback next week. WHSmith Travel, which runs bookshops in airports, has ordered 2,000 copies. Here is the book on display at Heathrow, recently (and even before it is officially released). It’s every author’s dream to have their books on sale at airports along with business guides, how-to books and generic thrillers. Am chuffed.

First look at the Paperback

The paperback of The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire will be published on 5 March 2026 and is available for preorder. Just love that doomy red foil lettering.

Decline & Fall hits the books-of-the-year charts

The Decline & Fall of the Human Empire hits the end-of-year charts as one of the 12 best science books of 2025 as selected by the Next Big Idea Club. This adds to the top-10 listing of the year's nonfiction of the German version by Deutschlandfunk Kultur, and its appearance on the 71-title long-list of the science book of 2026 prize in Austria.

In Conversation With ...

On Friday 14 November I was attending the Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology meeting in Birmingham, UK., and sat on a panel: left to right, Tom Holland (chair), Thomas Halliday (Otherlands) Elsa Pancirolli (Beasts Before Us) and me.