Robert Valentine
@mrrobvalentine
Hack for hire. robertvalentine.net
I’m reading Erebus by Michael Palin, and McVities’ advertising department might owe ship’s surgeon, naturalist and Antarctic explorer Robert McCormick some royalties.
Watching a very old favourite; Disney’s Treasure Island. I was obsessed with this map as a kid and would draw it over and over, and get my Mum to write out the legends with a Berol handwriting pen.
Latest training run done! Just over a month until the Great North Run, and if you’d like to sponsor me, that’d be lovely of you. ajbellgreatnorthrun2026.enthuse.com/pf/robert-ta...
Throughout the recent endless heatwaves I’ve really been looking forward to turning my wall calendar to August for this breathtaking photo of the Surrey hills.
The Crystal Palace dinosaurs have really enjoyed a fabulous glow-up. Really worth a visit if you can.
Bit of a slow writing morning where everything is uphill, but it’s Friday and there’s a second flowering of white roses outside my desk window.
4/4. In the film, Hy-Brasil is 100% Atlantis-coded. The production design gives Minoan vibes and this island sinks beneath the waves, which the Irish 'Brasil' doesn't. But Jones naming his island Hy-Brasil makes it easily reachable from Norway, while getting to have all that sunny Atlantean atmos. 🏝️
3/4. In The Saga of Erik the Viking, Hy-Brasil doesn't feature but there IS an island inhabited by a blind enchanter and his daughter, which is the narrative source for Jones's Hy-Brasil. In the film, though, it's the daughter (Imogen Stubbs) who 'blinds' her father with a cloak of invisibility.
2/4. In Irish myth, Hy-Brasil or Brasil is a phantom island in the Atlantic, visible once every seven years. This is where Erik's island gets its name, but nothing else. By the way, if you badly want this 'Brasil' to be a real place, there's a theory it's a mislocated Terceira Island in the Azores.
1/4. Silly little Sunday thread, but I rewatched Terry Jones's Erik the Viking on Prime yesterday, and that made me re-read a childhood favourite of mine, The Saga of Eric the Viking (also by Terry Jones), which got me thinking about the odd portrayal of Hy-Brasil in the movie.
Run done! Because it’s overcast and as cool as it’s going to be this side of the coming heatwave, I managed to get a Sunday morning circuit in for the Great North Run. If you’d like to sponsor me a quid or two, it’s going to the Lewy Body Society. ajbellgreatnorthrun2026.enthuse.com/pf/robert-ta...
Haha! Seriously though, the Target novelisation of Battlefield by Marc Platt was the series bible more so than the TV episode. All (if any) answers lie within its pages.
Right. Training begins now for the Great North Run. I’m raising money for @lewybodysociety.bsky.social and it’d wonderful if you could sponsor me. 🏃🏻♂️ ajbellgreatnorthrun2026.enthuse.com/pf/robert-ta...
I'm running the Great North Run in September for @lewybodysociety.bsky.social with some @bigfinish.bsky.social writer chums. If you're able to sponsor me, that'd be lovely of you, but I also accept moral support and hectoring. ajbellgreatnorthrun2026.enthuse.com/pf/robert-ta...
Drinking coffee and writing some extremely pulpy derring-do this morning. ☕️ ☀️
Your chances of being spied on by a pyramid in London are low but never zero.
Hello! Spending my afternoon curled up on the sofa with this. 🤓
Jo Martin IS the Doctor! ✨#DoctorWho returns in a huge multi-platform adventure: CIRCUIT BREAKER, activating soooon.⛓️💥
Finishing up the day with Ben Machell, Sarah Sparkes and Alice Vernon: Ghost hunting in the Archives. 👻 📚
Now Mark Pilkington on UFOs: Weapons of Mass Disruption. #StrangeCentral 🛸
Darren Naishon on Sea Monsters Past and Present. Oh, yeah. 🐳 🐉 🦑 🦞 #StrangeCentral
Dominic Chorney on History’s Weird Money: Treasures of the Occult. #StrangeCentral 🪙
At @conwayhall.bsky.social for @forteanlondon.bsky.social’s #StrangeCentral, kicking off with @drdavidclark.bsky.social on The Calvine UFO. 🛸