Henry Lion Oldie

Henry Lion Oldie, or H. L. Oldie (Russian: Генри Лайон Олди, Г. Л. Олди) is the pen name of Ukrainian science/fantasy fiction writers Dmitry Gromov and Oleg Ladyzhensky. Both authors reside in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and write in Russian. On Eurocon 2006 in Kyiv, the European Science Fiction Society named them the Europe's best writers of 2006. Oldie collaborated with other Russophone Ukrainian writers, such as Andrey Valentinov, Marina and Sergey Dyachenko. The "H. L. Oldie" pen name was invented as a merger of their names, Oleg and Dmitry, respectively, and initials are derived from their family names in Cyrillic (Громов and Ладыженский). They eventually decided that H. L. should stay for "Henry Lion". Choise of a "western" pseudonym was common during early Post-Soviet era, when Russian and Ukrainian publishers and readers preferred foreign science fiction and fantasy to Russian one.