Carlucci, April and Peter Barber, eds. Lie of the Land: The Secret Life of Maps. London: The British Library, 2001. ISBN: 0-7123-4751-8, $19.95. 64pp., maps, illustrations. Outside of the EU, distributed and marketed by the University of Toronto Press.

A spin-off from the recent exhibition of the same name at the British Library, this handsome little volume includes a useful checklist (with shelf marks) of the 133 items included in that exhibit. Its principal attractions, however, are some forty color reproductions of maps (or map details), each accompanied by a brief explanatory text. The selection is varied as to geographical coverage and date, and includes many maps that will be new to most of our readers. It’s a book that will provide an entertaining and educational hour or two for the map-smitten on your gift list, and ought to be especially appealing to those interested in maps of World War II. Fully eight of the maps illustrated date from that period, including a German map of Plymouth designed for the invasion and three maps printed, incredibly, inside a POW camp.

Robert W. Karrow, Jr.
The Newberry Library