What on Earth is Going On?

When I saw that our colleagues at Fourth Estate had just published ‘What on Earth is Going On? A Crash Course in Current Affairs’, I thought this just might be the book for me. It would fill in the gaps in my knowledge of current affairs and help me understand the background to some geopolitical issues which I will come across in my new role as a member of Collins Geo’s Policy Committee.

The book covers the obvious issues such as Israel/Palestine, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq and also less obvious ones such as organic food, Fairtrade and, funnily enough, blogging! It even includes a section on Piracy “… there were 293 piracy incidents reported worldwide in 2008, an increase of 11% from the previous year”, mentioning the town of Eyl, as noted previously in this blog. Each of the 62 chapters is about five or six pages in length and gives a general overview of the subject. The authors keep the material factual with the odd dash of humour and quirky facts. Some of the chapters gave me a basic lesson from scratch about the issue and others consolidated what I already knew.

It’s a worthwhile read and a book you can dip in and out of to broaden your knowledge of the background behind the news.

See the post on What on Earth is Going on? from the 5^th Estate blog (which contains sample chapters).



Elizabeth Donald, Information Editor, Collins Geo Newsroom.

Eyl, the Somali Pirate Capital?

The small, ancient coastal town of Eyl has become known as the centre of Somalia's recent high profile pirate activity. It is one of many bases used by the pirates to gain access to the shipping areas in the Indian Ocean along the Somali east coast and to the Gulf of Aden along the north coast.

See the location of Eyl and geographic information on Collins Maps, and a BBC News online report on the town.

The Map That Named America

The BBC News Magazine has an article on the recent media interest in the first map to name America. It describes how the giant and revolutionary 500 year old ‘Waldseemuller map’ was the first to name America, show the New World as a separate continent, suggest the existence of the sea that what would be named the Pacific Ocean and reveal the full coastline of Africa – “the first document to depict the world roughly as we know it today”.



Image from Library of Congress website

The last surviving copy of 1000 printed was bought by the US Library of Congress for $10 million in May 2003.

Toby Lester’s book The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Epic Story of the Map That Gave America Its Name is published in November – details on Amazon.

See also our Map of the Month July 2008 post on the naming of Antarctica.

Win a Luxury edition of The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World

,Waterstones are running a competition for card holders until 7th January 2010 to win a luxury version of the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World - the world's most prestigious and authoritative atlas. If you do not win or are not a card holder you can order one here through the Times Atlases website.

Not a member? The Waterstone’s Card is a spend and save points scheme for book lovers. It’s free and easy to join, all you need is an email address to sign up today and take advantage of the many offers and benefits available.

Map of the Month Oct 09 – Australian Journeys Embroidery

The map I’ve chosen for October is of the user-generated-content type, not the high-tech digital OpenStreet kind, but a simple embroidered map. The map uses coloured thread to create a highly visual representation of where people had travelled from to come to Australia.

Image from NMA website video.

The National Museum of Australia – Canberra commissioned a large printed fabric world map, with mapping data from ourselves - Collins Geo, sponsored by Hema Maps and JT Leutenegger (fabrics) to allow children and adults to stitch their journeys. This became the centrepiece of the Museum's Where in the World, the family discovery space program which marked the opening of the new Australian Journeys gallery. The gallery “traces Australia's interconnections with the world. People have journeyed to and from the Australian continent for millennia. Each year, almost 11 million people arrive in Australia, and the same number depart.”

To see how the collective embroidery developed from a plain map, click on the link below which uses time-lapse photography to condense two weeks of stitching time.

Map creation time-lapse video (2.2MB MPEG4 QuickTime, 21 seconds).

New Collins Geo Maps & Atlases Catalogue 2009-2010

Our new catalogue showing our current atlas and map ranges is now available to download.

It features The Times Atlases, Collins World Atlases, Wall Maps, Student and School Range, Road Atlases, Waterways Guides, Rambler's Guides and more. The catalogue include cover images, spreads, Collins size guide, awards, product details and contact details.

Collins Geo Maps & Atlases 2009-2010 (3MB PDF file)

Sir David Attenborough presented with Times World Atlas

Jethro Lennox, Geo Publishing Manager presented Sir David Attenborough with the latest edition of our Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World earlier this week.

Sir David took a break from signing copies of his personal view of the natural world Life Stories at our HarperCollins Bishopbriggs offices, to receive the atlas.


Photo - Vaila Alexander

He charmed the crowd and said how he loved the Times Comprehensive Atlas and was especially delighted now he had the most up to date edition. He had a collection of atlases at home, but what he liked about the Comprehensive edition was the index - its sheer size when compared to other atlases. He flicked through atlas index and said “Now, THAT'S what you call a gazetteer”.


Photos -Mark Steward

Sir David joked he was planning his next trip and would be taking the huge atlas with him. He was genuinely thrilled to get the atlas and spent a good few minutes flicking through it before resuming the book signing.

Later on asked how the signing session was going, the Customer Services manager said “I just couldn’t get him to stop reading that atlas”.

The World's Heritage co-published by UNESCO and HarperCollins

The UNESCO website has a post on their News and Events page regarding the joint publication of the World’s Heritage. It also lists the French, French Canadian, Dutch, Estonian, Hungarian and Spanish editions and notes the Chinese version will be released at the end of 2009.

UNESCO post at http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/555

New Times Concise Atlas of the World 11th edition

The new Times Concise Atlas of the World has just been published. It’s a completely updated edition of this major atlas in the prestigious Times range making it a valuable addition to any reference collection. The mapping and images provide an amazingly detailed view of the world, and the illustrated thematic content covers the most important geographical issues of the day.

Click on all images to enlarge



Sections include:
43 pages thematic section with spreads on The Planets, Earthquakes and Volcanoes, The Oceans, Climate, Environment, Biodiversity, Population, Urbanisation, Energy, Communications, The Evolution of Mapping, Revolutions in Cartography, Physical Features and States and Territories.



200 pages of reference mapping at relevant scales, including a brand new 1:6,000,000 scale mapping spread of Alaska in this edition.






The following new features have been added to the atlas:
24 pages of satellite images - Images of Earth, including each continent, Taylor Valley (Antarctica), New Caledonia, Grand Coulee Dam, Palm Islands and World Islands (Dubai) and Paris.





20 pages of historical mapping - a unique section showing how the world looked over the last 150 years through maps from the Times atlases. Including The World 1858, Africa 1898, Political Map of the World 1914, Indian Empire 1914, Europe Political 1922, World Powers 1957, World Political Chart 1963, States of the World 1982.


Also for the first time this atlas has features unique to Times range including abandoned settlements and historical outlines of large lakes and sea ice extent for north and south pole.

Beautifully designed and produced in the same style as the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World with gold slipcase and cloth spine.

Further details on the Times Atlases website

The World’s Heritage review in Geographical

‘… an invaluable reference book, packed full of wonders.’

A nice little review of our new guide - The World’s Heritage: A Complete Guide to the Most Extraordinary Places, appeared in the October 2009 edition of the Geographical magazine:

‘A complete guide indeed, covering all 878 sites that have been declared by UNESCO to be of outstanding value. Interestingly, it’s arranged in chronological order: the first World Heritage site, named as such in 1978, being the Galápagos Islands: a ‘living museum and showcase of evolution’ containing a ‘tossed salad’ of marine species, and the most recent, inscribed in 2008, the Al-Hijr archaeological site in Saudi Arabia, which incorporates ‘a major ensemble of tombs’ cut into the sandstone.

The criteria for addition to the World Heritage list are wider than might have been expected, and allow for the inclusion of Auschwitz-Birkenau (‘associated with events of universal significance’) and the whole of Brasilia (cited for human creative genius: ‘a landmark in the history of town planning’). It’s fascinating, too, to have glimpses of history’s little ironies at work: ‘economic stagnation’ is the root cause of the ‘remarkably intact state’ of Hoi An, a Vietnamese trading town that dates back to the 15th century, the town’s longstanding failure thus producing its present-day success.

There are fine photographs on every page, succinct capsule histories of each site and nicely judged details that breathe life into the subject matter (‘dandy and gambler Beau Nash masterminded Bath’s metamorphosis into the most fashionable resort in England’). According to the cover copy, a ‘location map for every site’ is included, although a potential visitor might want a bit more detail than an indication of which continent you need to be on. But that’s a minor quibble: this is an invaluable reference book, packed full of wonders.’

By Mick Herron

Reproduced with kind permission from the Geographical magazine Oct 09.

Beautiful Images of Obscure World Heritage Sites

Collins 2010 Europe Road Atlases and Map

This month sees the publication of our new Collins Europe Road Atlases and map for 2010.

2010 Collins Road Atlases of Europe, new A4 and A5 editions
Clear and easy to follow road maps. Euroroutes and motorways are easily distinguished on the mapping. The maps also show international road classifications, road distances in kilometres and relief is shown by attractive layer tints.

A4 - Essential at a scale of 1:1 000 000 (1 cm to 10 kms)
• Route planning maps
• A range of route maps of major cities
• A selection of centre street plans of major cities
• Also includes larger scale road mapping extending from Amsterdam to Munich and making route following easier through this densely populated area
£11.99





A5 - Handy at a scale of 1:2,000,000 (1 cm to 20 kms)
• Route planning maps with political colouring
• Country fact file
• Distance map and chart
• Information on international road signs
• Full index to place names
£5.99






2010 Road Map of Europe
A new edition of the annually revised, politically coloured map of Europe. The ideal map for planning and route-finding. It covers the area from the North Cape to Gibraltar and from Ireland to east of Moscow. Also includes Iceland and Cyprus.
• Index to place names on reverse of sheet
• Distance chart giving distances in kilometres between main towns
• European Union map showing member states and the Euro-zone
• Internet links to further information on Europe
• Map legend in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian
£4.99