A quick confession: I can’t read a map to save my life. Researching and writing this book was a challenge for me, but I learned a lot as I worked on it, and I was helped enormously by my subject-matter expert, cartographer Dave Higgins.

The Massive Book of Maps aims to answer questions like, ‘Why do we need maps?’, ‘How did people find their way around the world before they had maps?’, ‘How does a compass work?’ and ‘How can we map the universe?’ and looks at the history of maps and how authors use fictional maps to find their way around imaginary worlds. It also tackles the highly technical concept of triangulation, micro-maps and, of course, includes plenty of activities for readers to test their understanding.