To be honest, I can’t pinpoint a time or reason when my love of maps started, but they’re up there with books and music in my life. There’s something deeply satisfying in looking at something represented on a piece of paper in your hand, then looking up and seeing the same thing in real life… or just charting a planned – or past – journey. I can sit for hours and “read” a map, and of course those published by the Ordnance Survey are the very best in the world… but a map is a map is a map and to my mind they’re all just wonderful, and books about maps are pretty much my idea of heaven. The following anecdote tells you much about me: back in a time when I was unemployed and pretty much on my uppers, I saw a new paperback entitled Map Addict. It was only about £8.99 or so, but back then – 2010 – that represented a sizeable chunk of the benefits I was then on, and the question was wether to buy the book or eat something more substantial than beans on toast for the next few days. No contest. I bought the book and didn’t regret it.
