Since September 2024, I’ve been working on science books for Dorling Kindersley, starting with their new edition of The Periodic Table. The book arranges the elements in order of discovery, revealing how each came to light and which minerals are sources. The entries also take time to explore the orbital structures of each element, revealing their physical properties and practical uses in highly-illustrated colourful pages.
I planned and wrote the text for the chapters of elements discovered from 1700-1799 (the age of science) and those found from 1860-1899 (the period in which scientists formed and built the periodic table), along with chapter intros and sections of the book’s introduction. In DK style, there is amazing element photography, plus diagrams and photos of historic and contemporary applications.
My fellow authors are Victoria Atkinson and Paul Board, and the consultants are Andy Extance and Cally Oldershaw.
During 2025 I also wrote several chapters for Simply Chemistry, which will be coming out in April 2026. Part of the series of Simply DK books (I think there are 16 all together), it presents chemistry in an easy-to-follow way with one concept per spread, illustrated with newly-created diagrams.
On this project, my fellow authors were Kat Day and Victoria Atkinson. I wrote the chapter introductions for this title.
I’m currently working on a third DK title on quite a different topic, of which more news soon. In all cases, thanks are due to the editors and illustrators who shepherd everything into a complete book.
You can buy The Periodic Table from bookshops, and Simply Chemistry will be out in the spring. My other books, Cracking the Elements and Quantum Physics are not in UK shops so if you’d like to get hold of a copy, please contact me at r.mileham@gmail.com. I also hope to be at more book fairs and festivals such as the Oxford Indie Book Fair (shown above) in the near future.
