Book description
'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. 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
'Parker proves a witty and engaging guide' Guardian 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.
