'My name is Mike and I am a map addict. There, it's said...' Mike Parker, presenter of Radio 4’s On the Map, celebrates the richness of all things maps in this fantastic, critically-acclaimed read, completely updated in 2023.

Maps not only show the world, they help it turn. On an average day, we will consult some form of map approximately a dozen times, often without even noticing: checking the A-Z, the road atlas or the Sat Nav, scanning the tube or bus map, a quick Google online or hours wasted flying over a virtual Earth, navigating a way around a shopping centre, watching the weather forecast, planning a walk or a trip, catching up on the news, booking a holiday or hotel. Maps pepper logos, advertisements, illustrations, books, web pages and newspaper and magazine articles: they are a cipher for every area of human existence. At a stroke, they convey precise information about topography, layout, history, politics and power. They are the unsung heroes of life: Map Addict sings their song. There are some fine, dry tomes out there about the history and development of cartography: this is not one of them. Map Addict mixes wry observation with hard fact and considerable research, unearthing the offbeat, the unusual and the downright pedantic in a celebrati on of all things maps.

This “absorbing history of the Ordnance Survey”—the first complete map of the British Isles—"charts the many hurdles map-makers have had to overcome” (The Guardian, UK). Map of a Nation tells the story of the creation of the Ordnance Survey map, the first complete, accurate, affordable map of the British Isles. The Ordnance Survey is a much beloved British institution, and this is—amazingly—the first popular history to tell the story of the map and the men who dreamt and delivered it. The Ordnance Survey’s history is one of political revolutions, rebellions and regional unions that altered the shape and identity of the United Kingdom over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It’s also a deliciously readable account of one of the great untold British adventure stories, featuring intrepid individuals lugging brass theodolites up mountains to make the country visible to itself for the first time.

Originally published: London: Doubleday, 2002.

Examines the pivotal relationship between mapping and civilization, demonstrating the unique ways that maps relate and realign history, and shares engaging cartography stories and map lore.

The story of Britain's road development graphically and beautifully illustrated on our maps is also the story of its political, economic, and social history. And the car, more than any other single factor, has shaped our landscape and changed our maps. Busy, bustling, often creaking at the seams, most of us have a love-hate relationship with our roads. Like it or not, our modern lifestyles depend on them not only for getting from A to B, but for the distribution of almost everything we buy. Yet once upon a time, the building of roads was seen as a glorious and heroic enterprise. Britain's motorways "the cathedrals of the modern world" are the ultimate expression of our modern age. From the old ways to the motorways, "Mapping the Roads" charts the ambitions and hopes of the nation through our maps."