Dictionary of Doom FRONT COVER
Dictionary of

Doom
I started this project in the 1990s. Much of it is written but it is one of several that need updating. It was conceived as a coffee table book, a humorous offering at Christmas perhaps. All humour left me as I began the research. It was also a time when ecological issues such as global warming, acid rain and an ozone hole were being sneered at. No laughing matter now, any of it.

My initial interest came about from reading the Sunday Times' Blueprint for Survival when I was a student in the early 1970s. There was nothing funny about looming overpopulation at the time (the article's population figures have been exceeded half a century earlier than predicted), so I knew the point of my Dictionary of Doom would have to be one of reference.
One reason I abandoned work on it was because my American literary agent thought it "too weird" for the American market. He did think the religious material in it would be of interest to publishers in the lead up to 2000. Groups of fundamentalists were then stockpiling weapons and ammunition in Montana and Idaho in anticipation of biblical End Times manifesting at the end of the decade, a Christian millenial marker. 
A dictionary of doom would surely be useful when scanning news stories today. Much of what is construed as news is doom-mongering or catastrophe in varying degrees and for its own sake. It makes good headlines, draws dramatic pictures and fuels speculation and conspiracy theory. It is planned as number two in my Reference series.