Samuel Johnson Prize, the UK's most prestigious non-fiction award and in 2005 Earth: An Intimate History was shortlisted for the Royal Society's Aventis prize for science books. Life: an Unauthorised Biography was listed as one of ten Books of the Year by The New York Times. He has also turned his pen to writing dinosaur poems for children and even a spoof book on the Rubik's Cube. Fortey was elected president of the Geological Society of London for its bicentennial year of 2007 and was recently awarded honorary degrees by the University of St Andrews; the Open University; the Birmingham University and Leicester University. He has also been president of the Palaeontological Association and Palaeontographical Society; in 2009 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Fortey has also served on the councils of the Systematics Association; the Royal Society; the Palaeontographical Society (ex president); the British Mycological Society (vice president), and on the Stratigraphy Committee of the Geological Society of London; has served on the editorial boards of the Terra Nova; the Palaeontographica Italiana; the Historical Biology; the Biological Proceedings of the Royal Society of London and the Biology Letters. References External links Review by Tim Radford of the book Earth: An Intimate History, by Richard Fortey, The Guardian 1946 births Living people British palaeontologists Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Geological Society of London Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Employees of the Natural History Museum, London People educated at Ealing County Grammar School for Boys Lyell Medal winners Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Officers of the Order of the British Empire