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Pyramid magazine (it's an online RPG magazine) once had an A-Z of AH, you know, A is for ACW, Z is for Zeppelins. One of their writers is into AH. I remember this one: I is for Indian victories. That's American Indians, not Indian Indians who never achieve anything in ATLs.

If you have the time, I'd love to see more of "Like a Thief in the Night".

The challenge is, an ATL or FH in which the countries of a world with 21st Century levels of technology allow people to freely move into their countries and work and settle there. This might seem easy, but I think there are things that make it tricky. With modern transport and so many people...

I've noticed people almost never write timelines that involve world-changing visionaries like Hitler, Joan of Arc, Mohammed (or any major religious leader), Karl Marx, Gorbachev etc. I wonder why this is? Are people just not very imaginative, or do they try and avoid such "implausibility"?

Remember the Nazis had two atomic weapons programs. Neither of them was as well funded as it ought to have been and neither of them managed to figure out - in theory - exactly how to make a working A-bomb. But Hitler was a fairly random guy, he could have suddenly decided to pump more...

In OTL there was something called the "great leap forward" that occurred around 40,000 BC, before the end of the last ice age. There was a sudden increase in the sophistication of stone-age technology and culture. Mankind had clearly started on the path of sustained technological progress, even...

The beginnings of agriculture in the Middle East around 20,000-5000 BC coincided with the end of the last ice age. Probably agriculture became easier at this time because of a more congenial climate. But even during an ice age, the whole world is not covered in ice. There would be no reason...

So reading a book a day it would take you 22 years to read them all . . . and that's just the nonfiction! When do you find time to write?! I'm just guessing, but are you one of those people who buys a lot more books than they read? And can you recommend me a good book on how European...

I think an ATL in which either France and Japan or France and Prussia are united by a royal marriage would be cooler. Franco-Nippon would have an interesting culture while Franco-Prussia could dominate Europe. French overseas empire-building would probably be given a boost by either.

How about having Jeffrey Archer become PM after Mrs. Thatcher? Suppose in an ATL he was Foreign Minister in 1990 when Thatcher resigned and became her chosen successor. If you don't know who Jeffery Archer is, click the link to Wikipedia. You will see he is the ideal villain! Not only is he...

You mean, like the Labour Party in OTL? http://www.saveparliament.org.uk/

It doesn't bother me. In fact, I think it's a good idea. With languages, 11 is too late to start learning anyway, particularly if you're only getting one or two hours a week of lessons, during which time you get individual attention, what, 3% of the time? So if we're not going to teach them...

Aren't history, geography and foreign languages already optional for the post 14 age-group? They certainly were at my school in the 1980s - the only compulsary GCSE (14-16) subjects were Maths and English.

I think New Labour is a better bet than the Conservatives for this. This is from a story in The Guardian three years ago, when Charles Clarke was UK Education Secretary (he is now Home Secretary).

@joatsimion: This idea that Europeans can be inclined to scientific thinking and other cultures can't is interesting - I'm not ready to buy into it yet but I would like to know more. Can you recommend any books? And, granting for the sake of argument that a knowledge of Greek philosophy...

First, elephants. WI humans either never evolved or went extinct before leaving Africa, then at some time in the future an intelligent species of elephant appears? Loxodonta sapiens is as intelligent as humans and has a sophisticated vocal language. My question is - what sort of technology...

IIRC the important books are (in order) Alien Bodies (in which the scene is set) Interference Dead Romance (not a Dr Who book) The Taking of Planet Five Shadows of Avalon The Ancestor Cell (the book in which Gallifrey finally bites the dust) The Gallifrey Chronicles However . . ...

Between the end of the last TV series and the beginning of this one Virgin Publishing and BBC Books published hundreds of Doctor Who novels. Most of them were either predictable "Dr Who by numbers" stuff or pretentious fanwankery, but some of them are worth reading. This is a list of the...

Okay, I should have said concieved. Pedant.

Actually that's not a bad idea! In OTL Hitler's father was very abusive towards his mother, and Hitler hated him for it, perhaps Miss Hitler (does anyone know what the Hitlers were planning to call their child if it were a girl?) would vow to put an end to the Patriachy rather than the...