'My name is Mike and I am a map addict. There, it's said!' 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 celebration of all things maps.In Map Addict, we learn the location of what has officially been named by the OS as the most boring square kilometre in the land; we visit the town fractured into dozens of little parcels of land split between two different countries and trek around many other weird borders of Britain and Europe; we test the theories that the new city of Milton Keynes was built to a pagan alignment and that women can't read maps. Combining history, travel, politics, memoir and oblique observation in a highly readable, and often very funny, style, Mike Parker confesses how his own impressive map collection was founded on a virulent teenage shoplifting habit, ponders how a good leftie can be so gung-ho about British cartographic imperialism and wages a one-man war against the moronic blandishments of the Sat Nav age.
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Review
Mike Parker is 'a marvellous guide: enthusiastic, generous and lucid', Jan Morris 'An historical aside from Mike Parker is worth a monograph from others', New Welsh Review
About the Author
Mike Parker has had a varied career, which at one point saw him working as a stand-up comedian. He has been widely published and also presents various travel programmes for radio and television. His books to date include the Rough Guide to Wales as well as several other guide books. He writes freelance travel pieces for most of the UK papers, including the Independent, the Independent on Sunday, the Guardian, the Sunday Times and the Mirror.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By Heather Pearson
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
This book had me excited as soon as I laid eyes on the cover. Orange contour lines sketched on the surface of the hills, topographic symbols appropriately scattered, just a promise of what the book held inside.
Having studied mapping at university and having worked at several mapping positions I felt I was fated to read this book. I don't sit with a dictionary at my side when reading, rather I have my favourite atlas at hand, and a larger scale one nearby should that level of detail be needed.
It was quickly obvious that the author knows and loves maps. His early experiences with the British Ordnance Surveys maps and the Paris "Little Red Book: only whet his appetite for further explorations. I loved his story of when he is 12 and of finding a unique feature on a map and pestering his uncle to take him to see the location in real life. It's the Stott Hall Farm where the M62 veers around both sides of the farm.
Mr. Parker shares quite a bit of British map history including that of John Bartholomew who was the first to add shading to represent elevation or depth, Henry Beck for his map of the London Underground (which was simplified to provide only the required details) as well as Alfred Wainwright who is re known for his maps of the Lake District. The greatest amount of attention is given to the Ordnance Survey maps. While they were originally made for the military, they appear to have become the favourite for anyone wanting to find their way around Britain. I wish that Mr. Parker had included part of one of these maps within the book as I have never seen one and being on the other side of the ocean, its not likely I'll come across one, so much of what he was referring to I'll have to take on faith. You can visit the Ordnance Survey website for further details.
I enjoyed the discussion of how maps have been used through history as political tools. since they are but a representation of reality, they can be modified to show what ever is needed or to hide what you don't want to show, such as military installations, safe harbours etc. The influence of Religion on mapping has been apparent with Jerusalem appearing at the centre of some of the earliest maps.
I didn't really understand the section that talked about women and maps. Who is it that thinks women don't understand maps? The majority of the students in my university level mapping courses were women, they sure knew what they were talking about. I worked with lots of women in my mapping jobs, several of which were my bosses.
One of the final topics covered is the future of mapping. Will paper maps survive the onslaught of the GPS unit. As Mr. Parker points out, satellite navigation does have its limits, but as I have found out, you can go to a distant country, pull your GPS out of your luggage, turn it on and away you go. My family travelled around New Zealand for 10 days using our GPS and a small paper map (and driving on the wrong side of the road) and rarely had to make any directional corrections.
I knew from the start that I was going to enjoy this book and I was not mistaken. It was a fun but also informative read. There was new information for me as well as interesting stories. I'll be putting this book on the shelf beside my favourite atlases.
Having studied mapping at university and having worked at several mapping positions I felt I was fated to read this book. I don't sit with a dictionary at my side when reading, rather I have my favourite atlas at hand, and a larger scale one nearby should that level of detail be needed.
It was quickly obvious that the author knows and loves maps. His early experiences with the British Ordnance Surveys maps and the Paris "Little Red Book: only whet his appetite for further explorations. I loved his story of when he is 12 and of finding a unique feature on a map and pestering his uncle to take him to see the location in real life. It's the Stott Hall Farm where the M62 veers around both sides of the farm.
Mr. Parker shares quite a bit of British map history including that of John Bartholomew who was the first to add shading to represent elevation or depth, Henry Beck for his map of the London Underground (which was simplified to provide only the required details) as well as Alfred Wainwright who is re known for his maps of the Lake District. The greatest amount of attention is given to the Ordnance Survey maps. While they were originally made for the military, they appear to have become the favourite for anyone wanting to find their way around Britain. I wish that Mr. Parker had included part of one of these maps within the book as I have never seen one and being on the other side of the ocean, its not likely I'll come across one, so much of what he was referring to I'll have to take on faith. You can visit the Ordnance Survey website for further details.
I enjoyed the discussion of how maps have been used through history as political tools. since they are but a representation of reality, they can be modified to show what ever is needed or to hide what you don't want to show, such as military installations, safe harbours etc. The influence of Religion on mapping has been apparent with Jerusalem appearing at the centre of some of the earliest maps.
I didn't really understand the section that talked about women and maps. Who is it that thinks women don't understand maps? The majority of the students in my university level mapping courses were women, they sure knew what they were talking about. I worked with lots of women in my mapping jobs, several of which were my bosses.
One of the final topics covered is the future of mapping. Will paper maps survive the onslaught of the GPS unit. As Mr. Parker points out, satellite navigation does have its limits, but as I have found out, you can go to a distant country, pull your GPS out of your luggage, turn it on and away you go. My family travelled around New Zealand for 10 days using our GPS and a small paper map (and driving on the wrong side of the road) and rarely had to make any directional corrections.
I knew from the start that I was going to enjoy this book and I was not mistaken. It was a fun but also informative read. There was new information for me as well as interesting stories. I'll be putting this book on the shelf beside my favourite atlases.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars
3 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
An enjoyable journey
Mar 4 2011
By ThingsFindoThinks
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
I was lent this book by colleague, and although I forget the discussion that prompted it, she could obviously tell that I had some aspect of map addict about me. While I don't collect maps, I did have a thing for buying random, cheap, guide-books from those book liquidation shops, and I can't pass a map without looking at it to see where everything is in relation to eachother. I too love that map on the back of airplane seats. This was a book for me.
It's a very witty book (Parker has dabbled in stand-up comedy), and rather self-depreciating. It's quite British, with a heavy focus on the Ordinance Survey maps and their history, which was never-the-less interesting to a non-Brit such as myself (although I did live in London for a couple of years so am perhaps somewhat familiar with British geography). Though he looks at European mapping and geography too.
He looks at the history of the Greenwich meridian, and the way in which map technology has almost always come from a military genesis. There's a chapters on the evolution of street names and their common erotic origins, the famous London tube map and the A-Z. He ends by looking at the pros and cons of digital map technology.
The book is highly autobiographical, as Parker traces his childhood (a slight quibble is the way in which he feels the need to keep reminding us that he was a naughty boy and used to steal maps) and life experiences with various maps and journeys, which keeps it all from being dry and academic, while at the same time feeling like he's taking us for a meander rather than a striclty plotted course.
That I finished this book much quicker than most is either testiment to the enjoyable nature of the book, or my own if somewhat contained) map addiction. I did come away wanting to get hold of several atlases which he waxes lyrical about.
If you like looking at maps, I highly reccomend this enjoyable read.
It's a very witty book (Parker has dabbled in stand-up comedy), and rather self-depreciating. It's quite British, with a heavy focus on the Ordinance Survey maps and their history, which was never-the-less interesting to a non-Brit such as myself (although I did live in London for a couple of years so am perhaps somewhat familiar with British geography). Though he looks at European mapping and geography too.
He looks at the history of the Greenwich meridian, and the way in which map technology has almost always come from a military genesis. There's a chapters on the evolution of street names and their common erotic origins, the famous London tube map and the A-Z. He ends by looking at the pros and cons of digital map technology.
The book is highly autobiographical, as Parker traces his childhood (a slight quibble is the way in which he feels the need to keep reminding us that he was a naughty boy and used to steal maps) and life experiences with various maps and journeys, which keeps it all from being dry and academic, while at the same time feeling like he's taking us for a meander rather than a striclty plotted course.
That I finished this book much quicker than most is either testiment to the enjoyable nature of the book, or my own if somewhat contained) map addiction. I did come away wanting to get hold of several atlases which he waxes lyrical about.
If you like looking at maps, I highly reccomend this enjoyable read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Romance of the British Ordnance Survey Map
May 7 2012
By jacw2000
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Possibly the story of my life? Maybe not - I am fascinated by maps, Mike Parker is obsessed by them and is struggling to cut down.
In an earlier century this book might have had the subtitle "The Romance of the British Ordnance Survey Map, its Place in History, its Beauty and Accuracy, by an Admirer. With Digressions on the Wickedness of Foreign Maps, Satnavs, and other Work of the Devil"
Evangelists beware - the author is a gay comedian with an interest in paganism. If you read this book's 666 pages you may go straight to hell...
Jack Whittaker is a database administrator specialising in SQL Server technologies and author of the DBAtasks Blog - [...]
In an earlier century this book might have had the subtitle "The Romance of the British Ordnance Survey Map, its Place in History, its Beauty and Accuracy, by an Admirer. With Digressions on the Wickedness of Foreign Maps, Satnavs, and other Work of the Devil"
Evangelists beware - the author is a gay comedian with an interest in paganism. If you read this book's 666 pages you may go straight to hell...
Jack Whittaker is a database administrator specialising in SQL Server technologies and author of the DBAtasks Blog - [...]
4.0 out of 5 stars
A nice book, but narrowly British-oriented
April 26 2013
By Bruce R. Gilson
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I'm something of a map addict like the author, though my map collection is stashed away in a storage unit, so I appreciate this book. It is a good overview of why one might enjoy collecting maps and a description of much that can be appreciated in them. The only problem I have with the book is an extreme Anglocentrism; he ignores most of the rest of the world, and when he mentions any other country's maps, it's clear that he considers them highly inferior to his own country's. But as I said, I'm a bit of a map addict like him, so I have to say that this "kindred spirit" feeling overpowers that Anglocentric attitude I find a bit off-putting.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
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