Good and entertaining account, but I would have liked more technical details and local history of the survey and its consequences and perhaps less of the elite social history. The coverage of the Ordnance Survey of southern England and Ireland is enlightening, but the coverage peters out before mid-19th century -- thirty years before the First Series maps were completed, and before the work was well underway with the survey of Scotland. It would also have been interesting to highlight further the parallel work before and during the period covered of mapmaking in France and triangulation of India.
For map lovers, the paperback format unfortunately makes some of the illustrated maps illegible, and cannot hint at the beautiful detail of the later 6" and 25" per mile maps. ( )

Packed full of great history and research, but Hewitt hasn't got Peter Moore's knack of telling the story so you can thoroughly revel but also retain. So saying, it will stay with me as a terrific reference book and one to dip into, now I know what treasures lurk inside. ( )

Puts the Ordinance Survey right on the map :). Something we walkers and scramblers have always loved, maps carried next to our hearts across the hills and through the rain, sleet and (rarely) burning sun. Winter nights on the kitchen table plotting routes. And 20 years ago wished for abroad in countries where whole hillsides seemed to be missing from the local maps! A moment in time just as the world changes - GPS, SATNAV, satellite pictures. The author places the start of the Ordinance Survey firmly in the military world, beginning with the Highland clearances and wars with France, continuing with Ireland and the the mapping for taxation, the massive social implications of fixing place names and not forgetting the struggle of the 20th century for access to land. The military, economic and political setting gives the book a real bite without detracting from the heroics of the multitude of people who walked the land actually doing the mapping. ( )

I know the exact moment I fell in love with this book. It came on page fifteen of the prologue, wherein Rachel Hewitt describes the debacle of a manhunt that followed the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. For want of a decent map of Scotland, England's fearsome army was led a merry chase across the Highlands by a half-lame septuagenarian and managed to lose "Bonnie" Prince Charles altogether. Charles's defeat came at the Battle of Culloden, famous for being the last pitched battle fought on the British Isles, and infamous for the bloodthirsty zeal of the English troops during and following the battle.

The English army annihilated the two thousand or so Scotsmen in around forty five minutes, and for anyone not quite sure how long forty five minutes is, Rachel Hewitt explains that it's "the time it takes to enjoy a soak in the bath". Upon reading this unlikely comparison between a scene of unimaginable bloodshed and a Cadbury's Flake advert, my eyebrows and jaw raced away from one another. Once I'd dragged down the former and pulled up the latter, I let out a sound somewhere between a snort of appreciation for the outrageous analogy and a snigger of expectation at what other delights the book would hold.

The story of the Ordnance Survey maps turns out to be a fascinating one, and Hewitt tells it brilliantly. Not since Longitude have I been so enthralled by such a dry sounding subject, but not even Dava Sobel wrote this well. The book is always comprehensive but never too slow nor patronising, and has many a nice personal touch as well. The characters that brought the Survey to life are herein brought to life themselves, and thanks to some well placed and never smarmy personal recollections of the author, the book itself almost has a life of its own.

The subject matter might not be to everyone's tastes, but maps aside it's a riveting tale of human triumph over and alongside nature and the elements with some intriguing cameos and some genuinely touching drama. And surely everyone appreciates a book with all that. ( )

I know the exact moment I fell in love with this book. It came on page fifteen of the prologue, wherein Rachel Hewitt describes the debacle of a manhunt that followed the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. For want of a decent map of Scotland, England's fearsome army was led a merry chase across the Highlands by a half-lame septuagenarian and managed to lose "Bonnie" Prince Charles altogether. Charles's defeat came at the Battle of Culloden, famous for being the last pitched battle fought on the British Isles, and infamous for the bloodthirsty zeal of the English troops during and following the battle.

The English army annihilated the two thousand or so Scotsmen in around forty five minutes, and for anyone not quite sure how long forty five minutes is, Rachel Hewitt explains that it's "the time it takes to enjoy a soak in the bath". Upon reading this unlikely comparison between a scene of unimaginable bloodshed and a Cadbury's Flake advert, my eyebrows and jaw raced away from one another. Once I'd dragged down the former and pulled up the latter, I let out a sound somewhere between a snort of appreciation for the outrageous analogy and a snigger of expectation at what other delights the book would hold.

The story of the Ordnance Survey maps turns out to be a fascinating one, and Hewitt tells it brilliantly. Not since Longitude have I been so enthralled by such a dry sounding subject, but not even Dava Sobel wrote this well. The book is always comprehensive but never too slow nor patronising, and has many a nice personal touch as well. The characters that brought the Survey to life are herein brought to life themselves, and thanks to some well placed and never smarmy personal recollections of the author, the book itself almost has a life of its own.

The subject matter might not be to everyone's tastes, but maps aside it's a riveting tale of human triumph over and alongside nature and the elements with some intriguing cameos and some genuinely touching drama. And surely everyone appreciates a book with all that. ( )