NEW: Two days before Christmas in 1919, Captain Leicester Stevens and his rescued war dog Laddie set off from London on a ten-thousand-mile journey into the heart of Africa to hunt for a dinosaur.
Read my latest true story, "The Dog and the Dinosaur" 🐕 🦕
https://medium.com/longium-longform/the-dog-and-the-dinosaur-d9e5e3d7edc2?sk=36ee4d12580a03a1010406f696b5344a

2/ There had been a flurry of reported sightings in the Belgian Congo of a huge monster, identified by witnesses as a brontosaurus. Newspapers reported a $5 million reward for its capture – dead or alive. It was an improbable quest that would grip the world.


3/ My latest feature-length true story is about an extraordinary dinosaur-hunting frenzy, and also about family and how we connect (or fail to connect) with our ancestors. In a remarkable coincidence, Leicester's granddaughter is a palaeontologist. She is also a dinosaur hunter.


4/ You can read "The Dog and the Dinosaur" over at @Medium.
It's a #longread, so why not save it to @Pocket?
I've no idea what Twitter's new algorithm will do to this thread, but I'm grateful for retweets.
@Longreads @sundaylongread @DVNJr @JacobFeldman4

https://medium.com/longium-longform/the-dog-and-the-dinosaur-d9e5e3d7edc2

5/ The great brontosaurus hunt was given credence by the world's most respected newspapers and experts.
The search for a dinosaur in the Congo continues... @forteantimes @karlshuker @CryptoLoren @cryptidfactor  @Nat_Cryptid_Soc @SmlTownMonsters  🐕🦕
https://medium.com/longium-longform/the-dog-and-the-dinosaur-d9e5e3d7edc2?sk=36ee4d12580a03a1010406f696b5344a

The Dog and the Dinosaur: A True Story

NEW: The Man Who Rode The Bear:
A gold rush pioneer pursues a murderer through Californian redwoods and stumbles into a deadly encounter with a grizzly bear...
New blockbuster nonfiction on Singular Discoveries:
https://singulardiscoveries.substack.com/p/the-man-who-rode-the-bear
#longreads @longreads @sundaylongread
1/5

Andy Stump came to California from West Virginia and worked at the Bodega sawmill in Sonoma County. The trouble started in 1852 when one of his coworkers, a friend named Jersey Roy, mysteriously disappeared – along with a belt full of gold dust...

2/5


Stump suspected another worker, Tony West, of murdering Roy for his gold. Stump confronted West and pursued him into the redwood forest, across valleys, through creeks, and down canyons. After a long chase, Stump and West fell into the den of a very angry grizzly bear...
3/5

The grizzly was California's most formidable animal. Seven feet tall, a thousand pounds, kitchen-knife claws and a vice-clamp jaw, this was ursus horribilis – the terrible bear. The tumbling Stump fell right on its back, grabbed two fistfuls of fur, and was on for the ride...
4/5

Also in this edition of Singular Discoveries, recommended books by @skiphol and @johnphillips185, plus a dead cert Oscar tip. Oh, and there's an audio version of The Man Who Rode The Bear, too. All free of charge and cheap at the price here:
https://singulardiscoveries.substack.com/p/the-man-who-rode-the-bear
5/5

The Man Who Rode The Bear

Introducing IP Picks, a showcase for my longform articles and books suitable for TV, films, and podcast adaptation. It's aimed at producers but also serves as an easy-to-browse portfolio of my work. But you might be wondering: What the heck is IP?
https://ippicks.com/

1/

IP stands for intellectual property, and that's any original content you create — ideas, designs, products etc. In this context, it's original writing. A writer owns the intellectual property in anything they create (unless the contract assigns the rights to someone else*).

2/

IP rights allow writers to earn money from the intellectual property they own. One way to do this is to sell the rights to make TV, films, and podcasts. With the publishing industry squeezed and streaming etc expanding, IP rights are increasingly valuable.

3/

If a producer is interested in a story, they can option it. An option is a period of exclusivity during which they can attempt to set up the project for production. The writer gets an option fee, generally a % of the purchase price paid if the project goes into production.

4/

I currently have three stories under option. Hopefully, they will move into production. But it's a long process. The aim of IP Picks is to showcase my work that is still available — original source material for TV, films and podcasts. Take a look:
https://ippicks.com/

5/

*If I can offer one tip to writers after 25 years of freelancing it's "retain your rights!" IP is valuable. Publishers might want to split the rights. You should negotiate. Is it worth giving the publisher 50%? In general, I'd say no.

More here:
https://singulardiscoveries.substack.com/p/death-of-an-angel

6/6

You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: https://typefully.com/paulbrownUK/bc0tz8X

Introducing IP Picks

NEW: Frank Melvin was shot dead in Newark, New Jersey, in December 1981. Melvin was a longstanding member of the Guardian Angels, the volunteer crime prevention group known for their distinctive red berets. He was killed by a single bullet fired by a Newark police officer.

According to the police, Melvin, who was Black, was accidentally killed by Hispanic patrolman Milton Medina in a terrible case of mistaken identity. According to the Guardian Angels, Melvin was deliberately killed by a different cop, Donald Karas, who was white.

According to the Guardian Angels, a Black civilian had been killed by a white cop, and the police were undertaking a "deliberate cover-up" of a racially motivated killing. The shooting and the fight for justice, led by Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, had dramatic consequences.

Death of an Angel: Did a White Cop Kill a Black Guardian Angel?
The police said it was an accident. The Guardian Angels accused them of covering up a racially-motivated murder. Who shot Frank Melvin? Read (or listen to) the full story here:
https://medium.com/longium-longform/death-of-an-angel-did-a-white-cop-kill-a-black-guardian-angel-a3818c8f5a89?sk=758db25a7c79a8af6ec6965dd1aed58a

Death of an Angel

The Tyne Bridge first appeared on film shortly after its opening in 1928 in a Fox Movietone "talkie", King of England Makes A Speech... Opens a New Bridge at Newcastle.
Since then the bridge has been a popular backdrop for film and TV... a thread 🧵
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVwHaIVgDTk

The Tyne Bridge features in 1939 film noir On the Night of the Fire and 1950 thriller The Clouded Yellow, but it got its first starring role in the terrific 1961 heist movie Payroll, which was shot on location on gritty Tyneside.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv53WPrCguk

A decade later, the Tyne Bridge featured only briefly in Tyneside's most famous film, 1971's Get Carter starring Michael Caine. It's shown in the background during scenes filmed on the Swing and High Level bridges.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV4XrUDBlfM

If Get Carter is Tyneside's most famous film, The Likely Lads (and superior follow-up Whatever Happened to...?) is its most famous TV show. The Tyne Bridge appears prominently in the 1976 Likely Lads movie, shot while the bridge was blue not green.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4Dpcm6jXwo


The Tyne Bridge also features in another classic TV show, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, notably in the second series in which the gang, including Jimmy Nail's Oz, return to Tyneside and the bridge is symbolic of coming home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRydU2zloWo

The Tyne Bridge made another prominent screen appearance in Mike Figgis's 1988 debut movie Stormy Monday, which sees Wallsend-born Sting face-off with Tommy Lee Jones on the High Level Bridge, with the Tyne conspicuous in the background.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skRw-mrbtOA


The Tyne Bridge is the setting for final scene of classic 1996 BBC drama Our Friends In The North, in which a virtually unrecognisable Daniel Craig, as Geordie Peacock, exits to a soundtrack of Don't Look Back in Anger by Oasis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfDs4EzOQGk

The Tyne Bridge also features in Byker Grove, Geordie Shore, Inspector George Gently, Vera, Goal: The Movie... More recently it featured in movies Stan & Ollie and The Duke - although neither was shot on Tyneside and the bridge was inserted via CGI.
https://www.reelstreets.com/films/stan-and-ollie/

Perhaps most famously, the Tyne Bridge appears on TV each year  as a backdrop to the Great North Run, reminding TV viewers worldwide of the proud achievements of Tyneside.

One last film, the remarkable "Building The New Tyne Bridge". You can watch it at the North East Film Archive:
https://www.yfanefa.com/record/16120

Like this thread? You'll love my brand new Tyne Bridge book. It's packed with stories and photos. Please RT!
https://tynebridgebook.com/

The Tyne Bridge on film and TV

Pioneering engineer Dorothy "Dot" Buchanan is a forgotten figure in the construction of the Tyne Bridge.

She was the first woman to be granted membership of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

But she gave up her career to be an "industrious housewife". Quick thread:🧵

Dorothy Donaldson Buchanan was the daughter of a church minister from Langholm, Dumfriesshire.

She studied civil engineering at Edinburgh University and worked for Ralph Freeman, the bridge-building consultant engineer for Dorman Long, who built the Sydney and Tyne Bridges.

Buchanan stated her profession as "designer and draughtsman" and worked on "intricate mathematical calculations and drawings" for the steelwork on the Sydney Harbour and Tyne Bridges.

It was said she was regarded as a curiosity by her male colleagues, who "came to gawp".

In 1927, during her work on the Tyne Bridge, Dot Buchanan became the first woman among ten thousand men to be granted membership of the Institution of Civil Engineers:

"I felt I represented all the women in the world. It was my hope that I would be followed by many others."

Buchanan's time in engineering was short-lived.
In 1930, she married electrical engineer William Fleming and gave up her career to become an "industrious housewife".

One newspaper wrote about Buchanan's change of career under the headline: "Engineer Girl Can Cook!"

There's more about Dot Buchanan and other unsung figures in my new book about the Tyne Bridge which is out now.
You can get more details and buy the book here:
https://tynebridgebook.com/

Dot Buchanan: forgotten figure of the Tyne Bridge

The Tyne Bridge was almost blown up during World War II.

The bridge was a prize target for Nazi bombers, and was also primed for detonation by Tyneside's defence volunteers.

Read on for a short thread 🧵

On 2 July 1940, a bomber's payload narrowly missed the Tyne Bridge and sailed over the Swing and High Level bridges.

13 people were killed in this raid, including several children, and 123 were injured.

In August 1940, an off-course Luftwaffe bomber that was supposed to target the Tyne Bridge accidentally flew ten miles upriver and tried to blow up the visually similar (but much smaller) Wylam Railway Bridge.

(It missed.)

Fears of an invasion along the North-East coast meant vital structures were primed for demolition to slow the Nazi advance.

One of those structures was the Tyne Bridge.

The code word to alert defence volunteers to blow up the bridge was: "Humbug."

Early one morning in 1940, a message was received: "Humbug to you. I repeat: Humbug to you."

Volunteers hurried to detonate the Tyne Bridge... but were advised to stand down.

It was a false alarm, "a test dreamed up by Churchill to make sure everyone was on their toes".

There were 31 deadly bombing raids on Tyneside between 1940 and 1943.

"And throughout all of this, the Tyne Bridge stood firm," said the Newcastle @ChronicleLive, "a symbol of the determination of the people of Tyneside to withstand all that the Nazis could throw at them."

There's lots more about the forgotten history of the Tyne Bridge in my brand new book, which is out now (just in time for Christmas).

More details here:
https://tynebridgebook.com/

You can read a longer version of this story in my Substack newsletter. Why not sign up? It's free:
https://singulardiscoveries.substack.com/p/the-plot-to-blow-up-the-tyne-bridge

The plot to blow up the Tyne Bridge

The building of the Tyne Bridge was a dangerous job.

For many years, it was said that only one man died during the construction. This was not true.

While researching my book about the Tyne Bridge, I found that three workers lost their lives. These are their stories: 🧵

For years it was believed that only one worker died during the construction of the Tyne Bridge.

Nathaniel Collins fell from the top of the arch into the Tyne in February 1928.

He was a 33-year-old WWI veteran from South Shields, who was married with two children.

But Nathaniel Collins was not the first man to die during construction of the Tyne Bridge.

Frank McCoy, 44 and from Gateshead, was killed in February 1926 during the sinking of the foundations.

A skip full of excavated material fell from a crane on to his head.

Sadly, a third man died while building the Tyne Bridge.

Norman Muller, a 26-year-old joiner's labourer from Sunderland, was killed on 19 June 1928.

He fell 60 feet onto the Quayside while removing scaffolding from the abutment tower at the Newcastle end of the bridge.

Muller fell from a nine-inch-wide wooden plank that workers walked across without safety equipment.

His colleagues and supervisors considered the plank to be safe.

Like Nathaniel Collins and Frank McCoy, Muller was found at an inquest to have suffered an accidental death.

Several other workers fell from the Tyne Bridge and survived.

This was largely due to the heroism of John Carr, who was employed to sit in a rowing boat under the bridge and rescue fallen men.

Reports suggested Carr saved 57 men from the Tyne.

This photo shows John Carr sitting under the Tyne Bridge in a rowing boat waiting to pull fallen workers from the river.

Carr, from Newcastle, became something of a hero for his "magnificent record of life-saving". He was awarded a Royal Humane Society medal for bravery.

Hundreds of workers built the Tyne Bridge, risking their lives in a remarkable high-wire balancing act that attracted crowds of awestruck spectators.

The icon of Tyneside now stands as a monument to them, and a tribute to Nathaniel Collins, Frank McCoy and Norman Muller.

My new book, The Tyne Bridge: Icon of North East England, is published by @HurstPublishers and is out now.

The perfect Christmas present for Geordie bridge lovers...

You can find out more and buy it here:
https://tynebridgebook.com/

Three men died while building the Tyne Bridge

Newcastle United last won the League in April 1927. It was quite a month on Tyneside:

#NUFC League Champions 🏆
Newcastle Brown Ale launched 🍺
Tyne Bridge begins to span river 🏗️

A quick thread 🧵

Newcastle United won the Football League for the fourth time in 1927.

Captain and centre-forward Hughie Gallacher—a brilliant but ultimately tragic wee Scot—scored 39 goals in 41 games.

Newcastle secured the League title with a draw at West Ham on 23 April.

#NUFC 🏆

In the same month, April 1927, Newcastle Breweries launched a new beverage.

Sitting alongside the existing Newcastle Pale Ale and Mild Ale, it was called Newcastle Brown Ale.

"Entirely new," proclaimed ads. "You have tasted nothing quite the same as this before."

🍺

Also in April 1927, after many months of foundation and approach work, the Tyne Bridge finally began to span the river.

Huge crowds watched the growing structure seemingly defy gravity as it reached out from each riverbank over the Tyne.

🏗️

Although the Tyne Bridge was a long way from being finished in April 1927, the North Mail published this sketch of what it would look like when it was completed.

The Tyne Bridge workers could toast their hard work - and Newcastle's League win - with a schooner of Brown Ale.

There's lots more about the Tyne Bridge (and NUFC and Brown Ale!) in my new book, available now from all good bookshops:
https://www.tynebridgebook.com

I'll be talking about the bridge at Books on Tyne:
https://www.booksontyne.co.uk/event/paul-brown/

If you liked this brief thread, please Retweet!

Why April 1927 was a great month for Tyneside

The Tyne Bridge is getting a long-overdue repaint, and will be restored to its famous "Hollybush" green colour.

But the Tyne Bridge has not always been green.

And the task of painting it has never been easy.

A short thread... 🧵

The Tyne Bridge was originally painted with three coats of special paint supplied by J Dampney and Co of Gateshead. The outer coat was Dampney's Superlative Middle Green.

In more recent years, the bridge has been repainted with a British Standard green known as Hollybush.

But the Tyne Bridge has not always been green. For a couple of decades, it was blue.

In 1961, Newcastle Council decided to paint the bridge "Persian blue" (with ash grey, crimson red and Wedgewood blue detailing).

The bridge was blue until 1985.

The blue Tyne Bridge can be seen in the 1976 Likely Lads movie.

Here's Bob:

The 1985 Tyne Bridge repaint made national news when painter Terry Donnelly was pictured in the Daily Mirror performing a handstand on the top of the arch, 193 feet above the river.

Terry was sacked, and his boss said he would be better off working in the circus...

The Tyne Bridge urgently requires repainting. It was last fully painted in 2000, and the whole structure has been neglected.

But a recent funding announcement means work has now begun, and over the next 2 years the bridge will finally be restored.

(Spot the workman...)

The image on the front of my new book shows the Tyne Bridge on its opening day in 1928, shining with a fresh coat of Dampney's Superlative Middle Green.

Click here to read more and to get the book:
https://tynebridgebook.com/