Map Addict - A Tale of Obsession, Fudge and the Ordnance Survey

'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.

On an average day, we will consult some form of map approximately a dozen times, often without even noticing: 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. Mixing wry observation with hard fact and considerable research, Map Addict unearths the offbeat, the unusual and the downright pedantic in a celebration of all things 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.

This new edition of the beloved classic has been fully revised and updated, with a new chapter on digital maps: the good, the bad, the Google Street View.

Mike Parker was born in England and has lived in Wales for half of his life. His first book for HarperNorth, All the Wide Border, was a Waterstones Welsh Book of the Month and Travel Book of the Year. His other books include the bestseller Map Addict, The Wild Rover and On the Red Hill, which was shortlisted and Highly Commended for the 2020 Wainwright Prize for UK Nature Writing and won the non-fiction Wales Book of the Year Award.