The Mapmakers: The Story of the Great Pioneers in Cartography – From Antiquity to the Space Age – John Noble Wilford

One I borrowed from Phil, having started it one weekend at his. An enjoyable combination of history and science, which, for the most part, avoids getting too techie. And I just skipped the bits which bored me.

Two gripes however. Firstly, for a book on maps and mapmaking, its illustrations are sadly lacking, and second, although the scope in the first half is worldwide, the second half is almost entirely US focused, talking about the mapping of the USA. Interesting reading, but the book doesn’t offer any comparable history of the mapping of, say, the USSR, or Austalia.

Buy it: Amazon link