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Simon Garfield - On The Map (2nd Hand Hardback)

SKU B000047
Availability:
1 available
Original price £4.20 - Original price £4.20
Original price
£4.20
£4.20 - £4.20
Current price £4.20
Synopsis

Subtitled : Why the world looks the way it does.

Maps fascinate us. They chart our understanding of the world and they log our progress, but above all they tell our stories.

From the early sketches of philosophers and explorers through to Google Maps and beyond, Simon Garfield examines how maps both relate and realign our history.

With a historical sweep ranging from Ptolemy to Twitter, Garfield explores the legendary, impassable (and non-existent) mountains of Kong, the role of cartography in combating cholera, the 17th-century Dutch craze for Atlases, the Norse discovery of America, how a Venetian monk mapped the world from his cell and the Muppets' knack of instant map-travel.

Along the way are pocket maps of dragons, Mars, murders and more, with plenty of illustrations and prints to signpost the route. We also have x marks the spot, their promise of where we have been and where we might be going. This is the history of with way the world has been imagined, compared to what is really out there.

A book that manages to be both funny and factual.

From the bestselling and widely-adored author of Just My Type, On The Map is a witty and irrepressible examination of where we've been, how we got there and where we're going.

Details
  • Format : Slightly Thicker 2nd Hand Hardback with Dust Jacket
  • Condition : Good (A little general aging. Solid & Tidy though)
  • Category : Non-Fiction - Geography, Earth Sciences & Space
  • Published : 2012 (Profile Books - 1st Edition, 1st Printing with folded map insert "Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica")
  • ISBN : 9781846685095
  • SKU : B000047
  • PPC : SP550gm
  • RRP : £16.99 (Unclipped)
  • Quantity Available : 1 only.
External Reviews

"Garfield has a genius for being sparked to life by esoteric enthusiasm and charming readers with his delight." - The Times.

"A rollicking sweep through map history, packed with curiosities and written with verve" - Independent on Sunday.

"Garfield allows his varied, expertly researched stories to speak for themselves, and in so doing helps us see that there are fewer things in life more useful, rewarding and beautiful than a map." - Daily Telegraph.

"Garfield's genial prose twinkles with the delight of discovery" - Tom Hawker, Wanderlust.

"There couldn't be anyone better to write about our love of maps than Simon Garfield, who is a master at unearthing strange facts and mixing them with a lively personal narrative . . . fascinating" - Giles Foden, Conde Nast Traveller.

The Author
Simon Garfield was born in London in 1960. He is the author of an appealingly diverse and unpredictable canon of non-fiction, including the bestsellers Mauve, Just My Type and On The Map. He is a trustee of Mass Observation, and is the editor of several books of diaries from the archive, including Our Hidden Lives and A Notable Woman. His study of Aids in Britain, The End of Innocence, won the Somerset Maugham Prize, while To The Letter was one of the inspirations for the theatre shows Letters Live. His most recent book is Dog’s Best Friend: A Brief History of an Unbreakable Bond.

Categories, Collections, Filters & Keywords : Second Hand Books Non-Fiction Keywords_World History Keywords_Mapping The World Keywords_Geography Hardback with Dust Jacket Hardback Geography Earth Sciences & Space Book Type & Condition_Second Hand Books Book Type & Condition_Second Hand - Good Book Format_Hardback All Books 1st Edition