Map Addict: The Bestselling Tale of an Obsession

Written by Mike Parker

Narrated by Mike Parker

'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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Release date: Jun 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9780008598884

Mike Parker

Mike Parker was born in England and has lived in Wales for half of his life. 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.

Reviews for Map Addict

[antisyzygy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

For anyone who has ever looked at a map out of curiosity rather than necessity, this is an enjoyable undemanding read. Based around one man's personal obsession with maps, from schoolboy shoplifting to google maps mashups; it follows how people have interacted with maps through the years and their role in different cultures.There's plenty here to satisfy the average maps addict, even if some of it does hit uncomfortably close to home.

[peterblack_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Entertaining

[jon1lambert · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Interesting and regenerated my interest in maps - but too long and why so many references to the author's sexual orientation?

[mairangiwoman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A bit different from my usual - lots of interesting stuff from an obsessive but humorous map collector and journalist, tv show presenter - about maps and navigation and how Ordnance Survey maps convey so much detail about the history, industry, social preoccupations of UK. Some pieces about other countries and also some enlightening finds - like the disappearance of military bases from maps when the govt. doesn't want the public [or the enemy] to know about them. Helped along by the fact that I have used a lot of maps to find interesting places in the UK, and OS maps were always great when staying in one place and getting to know it in detail. Struck a chord for a particular area of Surrey where I lived, biked, walked, visited all the pubs, helped clear public footpaths, etc.There are some places where I had to skip the detail but mostly it is intriguing and entertaining.

[gantois_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is an truely English book but as a belgian with a passion for maps and cartography I enjoyed reading it. The author focuses mainly on the Ordnance Survey Maps and links history to his personal memories. Mike Parker is also a Rough Guide-writer and thanks to his sense of humour the story of Map Addict never gets dull.