Really interesting book, 07 Oct 2008
This book is brilliant! It uses maps of the world to display data by distorting the physical size of countries according to the relevant data - the result is a very visual feel for the data - much more powerful than figures or words could be. Every page has a global map displaying a different set of data and the range of data is huge, spanning from spread of diseases to energy use, from prevalence of national disasters to effectiveness of legal systems.

The book is pretty large and an ideal coffee table read. You don't need to be particularly analytical to get a lot from it - just need to be interested in the world. A fantastic new way of looking at the world.

Really interesting book, 07 Oct 2008
This book is brilliant! It uses maps of the world to display data by distorting the physical size of countries according to the relevant data - the result is a very visual feel for the data - much more powerful than figures or words could be. Every page has a global map displaying a different set of data and the range of data is huge, spanning from spread of diseases to energy use, from prevalence of national disasters to effectiveness of legal systems.

The book is pretty large and an ideal coffee table read. You don't need to be particularly analytical to get a lot from it - just need to be interested in the world. A fantastic new way of looking at the world.

If you're buying a house, buy this first, 07 Apr 2006
If you're buying a house, building one, or simply don't know your pargetting from your parapets, then this book is for you. It's thin enough that you can read it, yet the large format allows for several line drawings on every page. Reading this book taught me more than any other pile of textbooks about how houses were put together, how they fall apart and how to put them back again. It's a paragon of clear and legible writing and the scope covers all those types of building work that you're likely to encounter in UK domestic housing; from early-Victoriana to modern insulation systems. No longer need you be baffled by batts or fail to understand a U value. Highly recommended, and the best bargain anyone buying a house more than 10 years old could find.

Easy reading, 17 Apr 2004
I have got a number of constuction books in my arsenal to help me through the construction of a house extension - this one is the one I turn to first. Covering all the stages of building in a very clear but suffciently detailed way, it has been enough to guide me through various stages of the build with no extra help. What you don't find in these pages you'll only get in the Building regs themselves (which I recommend you get!).

This is an excellent book for construction students, 04 Nov 2001
I think this book is a very good book for construction students, it has everything in it from foundations to the roofs of a building. it also has alot of good diagrams in it, which is useful in the construction tecnology lesson at uni or at college. This is a must buy book

Really interesting book, 07 Oct 2008
This book is brilliant! It uses maps of the world to display data by distorting the physical size of countries according to the relevant data - the result is a very visual feel for the data - much more powerful than figures or words could be. Every page has a global map displaying a different set of data and the range of data is huge, spanning from spread of diseases to energy use, from prevalence of national disasters to effectiveness of legal systems.

The book is pretty large and an ideal coffee table read. You don't need to be particularly analytical to get a lot from it - just need to be interested in the world. A fantastic new way of looking at the world.

If you're buying a house, buy this first, 07 Apr 2006
If you're buying a house, building one, or simply don't know your pargetting from your parapets, then this book is for you. It's thin enough that you can read it, yet the large format allows for several line drawings on every page. Reading this book taught me more than any other pile of textbooks about how houses were put together, how they fall apart and how to put them back again. It's a paragon of clear and legible writing and the scope covers all those types of building work that you're likely to encounter in UK domestic housing; from early-Victoriana to modern insulation systems. No longer need you be baffled by batts or fail to understand a U value. Highly recommended, and the best bargain anyone buying a house more than 10 years old could find.

Easy reading, 17 Apr 2004
I have got a number of constuction books in my arsenal to help me through the construction of a house extension - this one is the one I turn to first. Covering all the stages of building in a very clear but suffciently detailed way, it has been enough to guide me through various stages of the build with no extra help. What you don't find in these pages you'll only get in the Building regs themselves (which I recommend you get!).

This is an excellent book for construction students, 04 Nov 2001
I think this book is a very good book for construction students, it has everything in it from foundations to the roofs of a building. it also has alot of good diagrams in it, which is useful in the construction tecnology lesson at uni or at college. This is a must buy book

A visual treat, 10 Jan 2008
This is a beautiful book, worthy of pride-of-place on your coffee table or your library shelf. If you're a "map person," you will relish hundreds of illustrations published between the covers. These generously-sized images give you a real opportunity to pore over the details on historical maps, and the accompanying text will teach you something new.
It is an ambitious undertaking to publish a book like this, and Simon Foxell has certainly done justice to his topic. From the famous (eg Hollar's Panorama) to the obscure, the maps are presented in full colour with extended captions. Foxell provides historical context and analyses the role of maps and the information they provide. Open the book to any page, and you'll find something to delight your eyes and tickle your brain.
A great gift for your favourite London-ophile (if that's even a word!).

Simon Winchester has a very simple formula, of which The Map That Changed the World is a perfect example--namely that the history we have forgotten is infinitely more interesting than the history with which we are all familiar. After the success of The Surgeon of Crowthorne, which documented the life of WC Minor, the American surgeon and major contributor to the first Oxford English Dictionary, Winchester now turns his attention to William Smith, the 19th-century Briton who can justly lay claim to being the founding father of geology.

The book has all the usual attributes of a pacy historical read: a self-educated, unrecognised scientist spends years roaming the British countryside, compiling a map of the geological layers beneath the surface, only to have his ideas ripped off and to wind up homeless and penniless in Yorkshire with a wife who is going bonkers. And it gets better: in a bizarre Dickensian twist, Smith finally gets his just accolades when he is recognised by a kindly liberal nobleman and is reintroduced to London society as the geologist par excellence. Of itself, the story would be more than enough recommendation but there is a subtext running though the book that is in many ways just as compelling--namely, how some parts of history get written in stone and others in dust. Most secondary-school students get to learn of Charles Darwin and The Voyage of the Beagle. Yet how many people could stick their hands up and say they had heard of Smith? But is evolution any more important a field as geology? Is history ultimately an exercise in who has the best PR? Winchester may not have the answer, but he'll certainly make you think.--John Crace

Really interesting book, 07 Oct 2008
This book is brilliant! It uses maps of the world to display data by distorting the physical size of countries according to the relevant data - the result is a very visual feel for the data - much more powerful than figures or words could be. Every page has a global map displaying a different set of data and the range of data is huge, spanning from spread of diseases to energy use, from prevalence of national disasters to effectiveness of legal systems.

The book is pretty large and an ideal coffee table read. You don't need to be particularly analytical to get a lot from it - just need to be interested in the world. A fantastic new way of looking at the world.

If you're buying a house, buy this first, 07 Apr 2006
If you're buying a house, building one, or simply don't know your pargetting from your parapets, then this book is for you. It's thin enough that you can read it, yet the large format allows for several line drawings on every page. Reading this book taught me more than any other pile of textbooks about how houses were put together, how they fall apart and how to put them back again. It's a paragon of clear and legible writing and the scope covers all those types of building work that you're likely to encounter in UK domestic housing; from early-Victoriana to modern insulation systems. No longer need you be baffled by batts or fail to understand a U value. Highly recommended, and the best bargain anyone buying a house more than 10 years old could find.

Easy reading, 17 Apr 2004
I have got a number of constuction books in my arsenal to help me through the construction of a house extension - this one is the one I turn to first. Covering all the stages of building in a very clear but suffciently detailed way, it has been enough to guide me through various stages of the build with no extra help. What you don't find in these pages you'll only get in the Building regs themselves (which I recommend you get!).

This is an excellent book for construction students, 04 Nov 2001
I think this book is a very good book for construction students, it has everything in it from foundations to the roofs of a building. it also has alot of good diagrams in it, which is useful in the construction tecnology lesson at uni or at college. This is a must buy book

A visual treat, 10 Jan 2008
This is a beautiful book, worthy of pride-of-place on your coffee table or your library shelf. If you're a "map person," you will relish hundreds of illustrations published between the covers. These generously-sized images give you a real opportunity to pore over the details on historical maps, and the accompanying text will teach you something new.
It is an ambitious undertaking to publish a book like this, and Simon Foxell has certainly done justice to his topic. From the famous (eg Hollar's Panorama) to the obscure, the maps are presented in full colour with extended captions. Foxell provides historical context and analyses the role of maps and the information they provide. Open the book to any page, and you'll find something to delight your eyes and tickle your brain.
A great gift for your favourite London-ophile (if that's even a word!).

Both entertaining and educating, 21 Nov 2008
Simon Winchester admits in this book that it is not a scholarly work and he is gracious enough to point toward other works that are. What we do get is a well written account of William Smith the Father of Geology that a layman like myself can understand. I am a complete numpty when it comes to Geology, social history and engineering. It was a pleasant surprise to me when I came away from this book having been enlightened. I think perhaps it was the likes of me that Mr Winchester aimed his book at. Well the arrow struck home.
Now I know something about how the differnt rock layers were created over immense time periods. I know more about the different types of fossil. I know a little more about canal and mine building. I am aware of how cruel the class system could be in Smiths time during the late 1700s and the early 1800s. I have in short become a bore to my wife.
I live not far from Bath and on my last visit looked closely at the Oolite stone that Smith was so fond of. This is a fascinating bit of local history for me and here I was totally unaware we had a hero from the past that is worthy of national praise. Winchester has certainly convinced me that the map Smith created all by his own efforts is a miracle indeed.
If you want an easy read of subjects that might elude you in more studious works, then this is the book for you. A big thank you to Simon Winchester for both entertaining and educating this poor air head. To such an extent I bought my first serious fossil in Morocco whilst on a recent holiday. And it is fantastic.

Interesting but flawed biography , 10 Jan 2007
Simon Winchester tells the largely forgotten story of self-taught geologist William Smith, the father of modern geology. Though the "barely educated lower middle class scholar takes on academic and social establishments and (eventually) wins" formula is not exactly original, the book is pacy enough and the human and scientific interests well balanced enough to keep it an enthralling read.

William Smith was the son of an Oxfordshire blacksmith. His childhood fascination with rocks and fossils led to his employment as a surveyor of mines and builder of canals, and to his discovery that the rocks of his native county lay in strata, always in the same order and always bearing the same unique fossils in each layer. He theorised that this pattern would be replicated throughout Britain, and that the fossils themselves showed that the layers of rocks were layed down at different times. Though to the twenty-first century, this does not sound very revolutionary, to the late eighteenth, before Darwin and when Bishop Ussher's dating of the divine creation of the Earth to 4004 B.C. was still popularly accepted, it was unheard of.

Smith's reputation spread, and soon his professional services were in demand throughout the country, allowing him also to test his geological theories; he astonished his patrons by being able to predict almost on sight whether their lands held coal strata. His plan was to produce a map of the geology of the entire British Isles.

Unfortunately, financial imprudence and lack of social standing, as well as possibly the stigma of an apparently insane wife and the professional jealously of his rivals, damaged Smith's career to such an extent that he was imprisoned for debt. These circumstances are not so well covered by Winchester; I suspect that Smith's diary is by so much the primary source here that he is only able to retell the story Smith himself recorded. The details of the "nymphomaniac" wife, for example, are particularly scanty.

This is unfortunate. For the most part, the book is very lively, easy to read, and Smith's story seems to hold a personal fascination for Winchester. In part, this is explained by a central chapter containing a childhood memoir from the author, on his finding of an ammonite on a Dorset beach; this did, I have to say, sit rather uncomfortably in the middle of Smith's biography; it might just have worked better as a prologue. And the assertion that amateur palaeontology is "no more than the mark of the nerd" is hardly appropriate in such a book! We forgive Winchester his failings though; we are too busy routing for Smith.


Repetitive repetitive repetitive, 06 Jun 2006
I had to give up reading this book, which I found very interesting because I couldn't cope with the author labouring the point. Take this example from page 172 of my copy:

For anyone today to walk eastwards, from Dorset to Dover along this coastline, just as William Smith had walked eastwards along the Somerset Coal Canal from Dunkerton to Limpley Stoke some two centuries before, is to walk forwards in geological time - is to walk away from and out of the older rocks and towards and into the newer. The cliffs that ranged before me now were each made of rocks that were successively younger than those in the cliffs that ranged behind me. The more distantly ahead of me they ranged, the younger and younger they became - so that those lost in the shimmering haze of the afternoon belonged to whole stages and epochs of geological time that were far more recent than those beside and behind me.

Apart from the fact that the reader is by now quite familiar with the starting and finishing point of the Somerset Coal Canal and with the fact that Smith lived 200 years ago (this fact is repeated many times as either "200 years ago" or "two centuries before")the author has now told us that the rocks get younger as one walks from Dorset to Dover 4 times in one paragraph.

I just couldn't take it anymore!

Almost interesting, 20 Jan 2006
I really tried to enjoy this book, yet despite one failed and one successful attempt at finishing it, I was left ultimately disappointed.
The subject is potentially enthralling, but the writing style and pretension of the author result in a book that is repetitive and difficult to read.
I have two main objections to this book, first, the excessive use of footnotes on almost every page. Reading these notes results in a book that fails to flow, and is consequently difficult to read. Not reading these notes would involve ignoring almost a third of the provided text.
Second, the author’s over heightened self importance, leading to an entire chapter (in which the author discusses his finding of a fossil during childhood) that adds nothing to the book, and would be better removed entirely.
Essentially the author appears undecided as to whether this book is his personal autobiography, or the biography of William Smith.

Intriguing book about one of the fathers of geology, 09 May 2005
I admit it... I'd never heard of William Smith. In fact the reason I picked up this book was it seemed an interesting title and I'd read a couple of other Simon Winchester books and found them to be a really interesting read.

William Smith was a self-taught geologist who recognised that in different parts of Britain the underground rock structure was different. He therefore took it upon himself to create an underground map of Britain showing how the various rock formations co-exist.

The narration of Smith's life is fascinating, encompassing a determination to succeed despite being a blacksmith's son (seen at that time as being an unsuitable background for someone wishing to mix with aristocracy). It tells of how this desire resulted in bankruptcy, prison, but only years later getting some of the recognition he deserved.

I would definitely recommend this book if you have read other Simon Winchester books before, or if you are interested in learning a bit about geology and how this science started out.

Really interesting book, 07 Oct 2008
This book is brilliant! It uses maps of the world to display data by distorting the physical size of countries according to the relevant data - the result is a very visual feel for the data - much more powerful than figures or words could be. Every page has a global map displaying a different set of data and the range of data is huge, spanning from spread of diseases to energy use, from prevalence of national disasters to effectiveness of legal systems.

The book is pretty large and an ideal coffee table read. You don't need to be particularly analytical to get a lot from it - just need to be interested in the world. A fantastic new way of looking at the world.

If you're buying a house, buy this first, 07 Apr 2006
If you're buying a house, building one, or simply don't know your pargetting from your parapets, then this book is for you. It's thin enough that you can read it, yet the large format allows for several line drawings on every page. Reading this book taught me more than any other pile of textbooks about how houses were put together, how they fall apart and how to put them back again. It's a paragon of clear and legible writing and the scope covers all those types of building work that you're likely to encounter in UK domestic housing; from early-Victoriana to modern insulation systems. No longer need you be baffled by batts or fail to understand a U value. Highly recommended, and the best bargain anyone buying a house more than 10 years old could find.

Easy reading, 17 Apr 2004
I have got a number of constuction books in my arsenal to help me through the construction of a house extension - this one is the one I turn to first. Covering all the stages of building in a very clear but suffciently detailed way, it has been enough to guide me through various stages of the build with no extra help. What you don't find in these pages you'll only get in the Building regs themselves (which I recommend you get!).

This is an excellent book for construction students, 04 Nov 2001
I think this book is a very good book for construction students, it has everything in it from foundations to the roofs of a building. it also has alot of good diagrams in it, which is useful in the construction tecnology lesson at uni or at college. This is a must buy book

A visual treat, 10 Jan 2008
This is a beautiful book, worthy of pride-of-place on your coffee table or your library shelf. If you're a "map person," you will relish hundreds of illustrations published between the covers. These generously-sized images give you a real opportunity to pore over the details on historical maps, and the accompanying text will teach you something new.
It is an ambitious undertaking to publish a book like this, and Simon Foxell has certainly done justice to his topic. From the famous (eg Hollar's Panorama) to the obscure, the maps are presented in full colour with extended captions. Foxell provides historical context and analyses the role of maps and the information they provide. Open the book to any page, and you'll find something to delight your eyes and tickle your brain.
A great gift for your favourite London-ophile (if that's even a word!).

Both entertaining and educating, 21 Nov 2008
Simon Winchester admits in this book that it is not a scholarly work and he is gracious enough to point toward other works that are. What we do get is a well written account of William Smith the Father of Geology that a layman like myself can understand. I am a complete numpty when it comes to Geology, social history and engineering. It was a pleasant surprise to me when I came away from this book having been enlightened. I think perhaps it was the likes of me that Mr Winchester aimed his book at. Well the arrow struck home.
Now I know something about how the differnt rock layers were created over immense time periods. I know more about the different types of fossil. I know a little more about canal and mine building. I am aware of how cruel the class system could be in Smiths time during the late 1700s and the early 1800s. I have in short become a bore to my wife.
I live not far from Bath and on my last visit looked closely at the Oolite stone that Smith was so fond of. This is a fascinating bit of local history for me and here I was totally unaware we had a hero from the past that is worthy of national praise. Winchester has certainly convinced me that the map Smith created all by his own efforts is a miracle indeed.
If you want an easy read of subjects that might elude you in more studious works, then this is the book for you. A big thank you to Simon Winchester for both entertaining and educating this poor air head. To such an extent I bought my first serious fossil in Morocco whilst on a recent holiday. And it is fantastic.

Interesting but flawed biography , 10 Jan 2007
Simon Winchester tells the largely forgotten story of self-taught geologist William Smith, the father of modern geology. Though the "barely educated lower middle class scholar takes on academic and social establishments and (eventually) wins" formula is not exactly original, the book is pacy enough and the human and scientific interests well balanced enough to keep it an enthralling read.

William Smith was the son of an Oxfordshire blacksmith. His childhood fascination with rocks and fossils led to his employment as a surveyor of mines and builder of canals, and to his discovery that the rocks of his native county lay in strata, always in the same order and always bearing the same unique fossils in each layer. He theorised that this pattern would be replicated throughout Britain, and that the fossils themselves showed that the layers of rocks were layed down at different times. Though to the twenty-first century, this does not sound very revolutionary, to the late eighteenth, before Darwin and when Bishop Ussher's dating of the divine creation of the Earth to 4004 B.C. was still popularly accepted, it was unheard of.

Smith's reputation spread, and soon his professional services were in demand throughout the country, allowing him also to test his geological theories; he astonished his patrons by being able to predict almost on sight whether their lands held coal strata. His plan was to produce a map of the geology of the entire British Isles.

Unfortunately, financial imprudence and lack of social standing, as well as possibly the stigma of an apparently insane wife and the professional jealously of his rivals, damaged Smith's career to such an extent that he was imprisoned for debt. These circumstances are not so well covered by Winchester; I suspect that Smith's diary is by so much the primary source here that he is only able to retell the story Smith himself recorded. The details of the "nymphomaniac" wife, for example, are particularly scanty.

This is unfortunate. For the most part, the book is very lively, easy to read, and Smith's story seems to hold a personal fascination for Winchester. In part, this is explained by a central chapter containing a childhood memoir from the author, on his finding of an ammonite on a Dorset beach; this did, I have to say, sit rather uncomfortably in the middle of Smith's biography; it might just have worked better as a prologue. And the assertion that amateur palaeontology is "no more than the mark of the nerd" is hardly appropriate in such a book! We forgive Winchester his failings though; we are too busy routing for Smith.


Repetitive repetitive repetitive, 06 Jun 2006
I had to give up reading this book, which I found very interesting because I couldn't cope with the author labouring the point. Take this example from page 172 of my copy:

For anyone today to walk eastwards, from Dorset to Dover along this coastline, just as William Smith had walked eastwards along the Somerset Coal Canal from Dunkerton to Limpley Stoke some two centuries before, is to walk forwards in geological time - is to walk away from and out of the older rocks and towards and into the newer. The cliffs that ranged before me now were each made of rocks that were successively younger than those in the cliffs that ranged behind me. The more distantly ahead of me they ranged, the younger and younger they became - so that those lost in the shimmering haze of the afternoon belonged to whole stages and epochs of geological time that were far more recent than those beside and behind me.

Apart from the fact that the reader is by now quite familiar with the starting and finishing point of the Somerset Coal Canal and with the fact that Smith lived 200 years ago (this fact is repeated many times as either "200 years ago" or "two centuries before")the author has now told us that the rocks get younger as one walks from Dorset to Dover 4 times in one paragraph.

I just couldn't take it anymore!

Almost interesting, 20 Jan 2006
I really tried to enjoy this book, yet despite one failed and one successful attempt at finishing it, I was left ultimately disappointed.
The subject is potentially enthralling, but the writing style and pretension of the author result in a book that is repetitive and difficult to read.
I have two main objections to this book, first, the excessive use of footnotes on almost every page. Reading these notes results in a book that fails to flow, and is consequently difficult to read. Not reading these notes would involve ignoring almost a third of the provided text.
Second, the author’s over heightened self importance, leading to an entire chapter (in which the author discusses his finding of a fossil during childhood) that adds nothing to the book, and would be better removed entirely.
Essentially the author appears undecided as to whether this book is his personal autobiography, or the biography of William Smith.

Intriguing book about one of the fathers of geology, 09 May 2005
I admit it... I'd never heard of William Smith. In fact the reason I picked up this book was it seemed an interesting title and I'd read a couple of other Simon Winchester books and found them to be a really interesting read.

William Smith was a self-taught geologist who recognised that in different parts of Britain the underground rock structure was different. He therefore took it upon himself to create an underground map of Britain showing how the various rock formations co-exist.

The narration of Smith's life is fascinating, encompassing a determination to succeed despite being a blacksmith's son (seen at that time as being an unsuitable background for someone wishing to mix with aristocracy). It tells of how this desire resulted in bankruptcy, prison, but only years later getting some of the recognition he deserved.

I would definitely recommend this book if you have read other Simon Winchester books before, or if you are interested in learning a bit about geology and how this science started out.

Inspections and Reports on Dwellings: Assessing Age, 27 Sep 2007
This book gives a real insight in the ageing of building without getting lost in the construction process

Really interesting book, 07 Oct 2008
This book is brilliant! It uses maps of the world to display data by distorting the physical size of countries according to the relevant data - the result is a very visual feel for the data - much more powerful than figures or words could be. Every page has a global map displaying a different set of data and the range of data is huge, spanning from spread of diseases to energy use, from prevalence of national disasters to effectiveness of legal systems.

The book is pretty large and an ideal coffee table read. You don't need to be particularly analytical to get a lot from it - just need to be interested in the world. A fantastic new way of looking at the world.

If you're buying a house, buy this first, 07 Apr 2006
If you're buying a house, building one, or simply don't know your pargetting from your parapets, then this book is for you. It's thin enough that you can read it, yet the large format allows for several line drawings on every page. Reading this book taught me more than any other pile of textbooks about how houses were put together, how they fall apart and how to put them back again. It's a paragon of clear and legible writing and the scope covers all those types of building work that you're likely to encounter in UK domestic housing; from early-Victoriana to modern insulation systems. No longer need you be baffled by batts or fail to understand a U value. Highly recommended, and the best bargain anyone buying a house more than 10 years old could find.

Easy reading, 17 Apr 2004
I have got a number of constuction books in my arsenal to help me through the construction of a house extension - this one is the one I turn to first. Covering all the stages of building in a very clear but suffciently detailed way, it has been enough to guide me through various stages of the build with no extra help. What you don't find in these pages you'll only get in the Building regs themselves (which I recommend you get!).

This is an excellent book for construction students, 04 Nov 2001
I think this book is a very good book for construction students, it has everything in it from foundations to the roofs of a building. it also has alot of good diagrams in it, which is useful in the construction tecnology lesson at uni or at college. This is a must buy book

A visual treat, 10 Jan 2008
This is a beautiful book, worthy of pride-of-place on your coffee table or your library shelf. If you're a "map person," you will relish hundreds of illustrations published between the covers. These generously-sized images give you a real opportunity to pore over the details on historical maps, and the accompanying text will teach you something new.
It is an ambitious undertaking to publish a book like this, and Simon Foxell has certainly done justice to his topic. From the famous (eg Hollar's Panorama) to the obscure, the maps are presented in full colour with extended captions. Foxell provides historical context and analyses the role of maps and the information they provide. Open the book to any page, and you'll find something to delight your eyes and tickle your brain.
A great gift for your favourite London-ophile (if that's even a word!).

Both entertaining and educating, 21 Nov 2008
Simon Winchester admits in this book that it is not a scholarly work and he is gracious enough to point toward other works that are. What we do get is a well written account of William Smith the Father of Geology that a layman like myself can understand. I am a complete numpty when it comes to Geology, social history and engineering. It was a pleasant surprise to me when I came away from this book having been enlightened. I think perhaps it was the likes of me that Mr Winchester aimed his book at. Well the arrow struck home.
Now I know something about how the differnt rock layers were created over immense time periods. I know more about the different types of fossil. I know a little more about canal and mine building. I am aware of how cruel the class system could be in Smiths time during the late 1700s and the early 1800s. I have in short become a bore to my wife.
I live not far from Bath and on my last visit looked closely at the Oolite stone that Smith was so fond of. This is a fascinating bit of local history for me and here I was totally unaware we had a hero from the past that is worthy of national praise. Winchester has certainly convinced me that the map Smith created all by his own efforts is a miracle indeed.
If you want an easy read of subjects that might elude you in more studious works, then this is the book for you. A big thank you to Simon Winchester for both entertaining and educating this poor air head. To such an extent I bought my first serious fossil in Morocco whilst on a recent holiday. And it is fantastic.

Interesting but flawed biography , 10 Jan 2007
Simon Winchester tells the largely forgotten story of self-taught geologist William Smith, the father of modern geology. Though the "barely educated lower middle class scholar takes on academic and social establishments and (eventually) wins" formula is not exactly original, the book is pacy enough and the human and scientific interests well balanced enough to keep it an enthralling read.

William Smith was the son of an Oxfordshire blacksmith. His childhood fascination with rocks and fossils led to his employment as a surveyor of mines and builder of canals, and to his discovery that the rocks of his native county lay in strata, always in the same order and always bearing the same unique fossils in each layer. He theorised that this pattern would be replicated throughout Britain, and that the fossils themselves showed that the layers of rocks were layed down at different times. Though to the twenty-first century, this does not sound very revolutionary, to the late eighteenth, before Darwin and when Bishop Ussher's dating of the divine creation of the Earth to 4004 B.C. was still popularly accepted, it was unheard of.

Smith's reputation spread, and soon his professional services were in demand throughout the country, allowing him also to test his geological theories; he astonished his patrons by being able to predict almost on sight whether their lands held coal strata. His plan was to produce a map of the geology of the entire British Isles.

Unfortunately, financial imprudence and lack of social standing, as well as possibly the stigma of an apparently insane wife and the professional jealously of his rivals, damaged Smith's career to such an extent that he was imprisoned for debt. These circumstances are not so well covered by Winchester; I suspect that Smith's diary is by so much the primary source here that he is only able to retell the story Smith himself recorded. The details of the "nymphomaniac" wife, for example, are particularly scanty.

This is unfortunate. For the most part, the book is very lively, easy to read, and Smith's story seems to hold a personal fascination for Winchester. In part, this is explained by a central chapter containing a childhood memoir from the author, on his finding of an ammonite on a Dorset beach; this did, I have to say, sit rather uncomfortably in the middle of Smith's biography; it might just have worked better as a prologue. And the assertion that amateur palaeontology is "no more than the mark of the nerd" is hardly appropriate in such a book! We forgive Winchester his failings though; we are too busy routing for Smith.


Repetitive repetitive repetitive, 06 Jun 2006
I had to give up reading this book, which I found very interesting because I couldn't cope with the author labouring the point. Take this example from page 172 of my copy:

For anyone today to walk eastwards, from Dorset to Dover along this coastline, just as William Smith had walked eastwards along the Somerset Coal Canal from Dunkerton to Limpley Stoke some two centuries before, is to walk forwards in geological time - is to walk away from and out of the older rocks and towards and into the newer. The cliffs that ranged before me now were each made of rocks that were successively younger than those in the cliffs that ranged behind me. The more distantly ahead of me they ranged, the younger and younger they became - so that those lost in the shimmering haze of the afternoon belonged to whole stages and epochs of geological time that were far more recent than those beside and behind me.

Apart from the fact that the reader is by now quite familiar with the starting and finishing point of the Somerset Coal Canal and with the fact that Smith lived 200 years ago (this fact is repeated many times as either "200 years ago" or "two centuries before")the author has now told us that the rocks get younger as one walks from Dorset to Dover 4 times in one paragraph.

I just couldn't take it anymore!

Almost interesting, 20 Jan 2006
I really tried to enjoy this book, yet despite one failed and one successful attempt at finishing it, I was left ultimately disappointed.
The subject is potentially enthralling, but the writing style and pretension of the author result in a book that is repetitive and difficult to read.
I have two main objections to this book, first, the excessive use of footnotes on almost every page. Reading these notes results in a book that fails to flow, and is consequently difficult to read. Not reading these notes would involve ignoring almost a third of the provided text.
Second, the author’s over heightened self importance, leading to an entire chapter (in which the author discusses his finding of a fossil during childhood) that adds nothing to the book, and would be better removed entirely.
Essentially the author appears undecided as to whether this book is his personal autobiography, or the biography of William Smith.

Intriguing book about one of the fathers of geology, 09 May 2005
I admit it... I'd never heard of William Smith. In fact the reason I picked up this book was it seemed an interesting title and I'd read a couple of other Simon Winchester books and found them to be a really interesting read.

William Smith was a self-taught geologist who recognised that in different parts of Britain the underground rock structure was different. He therefore took it upon himself to create an underground map of Britain showing how the various rock formations co-exist.

The narration of Smith's life is fascinating, encompassing a determination to succeed despite being a blacksmith's son (seen at that time as being an unsuitable background for someone wishing to mix with aristocracy). It tells of how this desire resulted in bankruptcy, prison, but only years later getting some of the recognition he deserved.

I would definitely recommend this book if you have read other Simon Winchester books before, or if you are interested in learning a bit about geology and how this science started out.

Inspections and Reports on Dwellings: Assessing Age, 27 Sep 2007
This book gives a real insight in the ageing of building without getting lost in the construction process

Excellent Book, 17 Nov 2007
This is a wonderful book that has lasted on our coffee table for longer than most!

The book steps through history from the earliest maps to the latest digital offerings. Each page has a full size extract from the map in question and a facing page that gives background and often a small thumbnail of the context or some detail of the whole. The pages are arranged and cross-referenced in date order. Some of the more striking maps have additional double page spreads, and there are two-page commentaries on tangental topics from time to time.

The text is fascinating and brings lots of world history that I kind-of new about into a new context: the gradually expanding knowledge of the world. Seeing how california went from island to peninsula, how the fabled southern continent appears and disappears, how sea-monsters gradually die out, who spain, the netherlands or the UK is at war with, and so on.

I suspect this isn't a book that will teach map-fans much (but is so beautiful to own nontheless), but for those with a casual interest I think it is a complete gem.

History of the influence of maps, not of maps, 08 Mar 2006
Beautifully produced book which concentrates on the political and social history of maps rather than the details of mapping and cartography.

Beautiful History of Maps, 24 Jan 2006
This is a beautifully produced book - with large pages displaying the example maps in excellent resolution.
The author takes a historical trip from the very earliest maps, scratched on whatever came to hand, up to the latest satellite images of the earth - which are more photograph than map.
The book also follows the story of human civilisation, and explains how maps have been pivotal in many phases of history - for explorers, the military, planners etc.
My only gripe is that the text provided for each map is limited to one (facing) page - which limits the potential for detail.

Really interesting book, 07 Oct 2008
This book is brilliant! It uses maps of the world to display data by distorting the physical size of countries according to the relevant data - the result is a very visual feel for the data - much more powerful than figures or words could be. Every page has a global map displaying a different set of data and the range of data is huge, spanning from spread of diseases to energy use, from prevalence of national disasters to effectiveness of legal systems.

The book is pretty large and an ideal coffee table read. You don't need to be particularly analytical to get a lot from it - just need to be interested in the world. A fantastic new way of looking at the world.

If you're buying a house, buy this first, 07 Apr 2006
If you're buying a house, building one, or simply don't know your pargetting from your parapets, then this book is for you. It's thin enough that you can read it, yet the large format allows for several line drawings on every page. Reading this book taught me more than any other pile of textbooks about how houses were put together, how they fall apart and how to put them back again. It's a paragon of clear and legible writing and the scope covers all those types of building work that you're likely to encounter in UK domestic housing; from early-Victoriana to modern insulation systems. No longer need you be baffled by batts or fail to understand a U value. Highly recommended, and the best bargain anyone buying a house more than 10 years old could find.

Easy reading, 17 Apr 2004
I have got a number of constuction books in my arsenal to help me through the construction of a house extension - this one is the one I turn to first. Covering all the stages of building in a very clear but suffciently detailed way, it has been enough to guide me through various stages of the build with no extra help. What you don't find in these pages you'll only get in the Building regs themselves (which I recommend you get!).

This is an excellent book for construction students, 04 Nov 2001
I think this book is a very good book for construction students, it has everything in it from foundations to the roofs of a building. it also has alot of good diagrams in it, which is useful in the construction tecnology lesson at uni or at college. This is a must buy book

A visual treat, 10 Jan 2008
This is a beautiful book, worthy of pride-of-place on your coffee table or your library shelf. If you're a "map person," you will relish hundreds of illustrations published between the covers. These generously-sized images give you a real opportunity to pore over the details on historical maps, and the accompanying text will teach you something new.
It is an ambitious undertaking to publish a book like this, and Simon Foxell has certainly done justice to his topic. From the famous (eg Hollar's Panorama) to the obscure, the maps are presented in full colour with extended captions. Foxell provides historical context and analyses the role of maps and the information they provide. Open the book to any page, and you'll find something to delight your eyes and tickle your brain.
A great gift for your favourite London-ophile (if that's even a word!).

Both entertaining and educating, 21 Nov 2008
Simon Winchester admits in this book that it is not a scholarly work and he is gracious enough to point toward other works that are. What we do get is a well written account of William Smith the Father of Geology that a layman like myself can understand. I am a complete numpty when it comes to Geology, social history and engineering. It was a pleasant surprise to me when I came away from this book having been enlightened. I think perhaps it was the likes of me that Mr Winchester aimed his book at. Well the arrow struck home.
Now I know something about how the differnt rock layers were created over immense time periods. I know more about the different types of fossil. I know a little more about canal and mine building. I am aware of how cruel the class system could be in Smiths time during the late 1700s and the early 1800s. I have in short become a bore to my wife.
I live not far from Bath and on my last visit looked closely at the Oolite stone that Smith was so fond of. This is a fascinating bit of local history for me and here I was totally unaware we had a hero from the past that is worthy of national praise. Winchester has certainly convinced me that the map Smith created all by his own efforts is a miracle indeed.
If you want an easy read of subjects that might elude you in more studious works, then this is the book for you. A big thank you to Simon Winchester for both entertaining and educating this poor air head. To such an extent I bought my first serious fossil in Morocco whilst on a recent holiday. And it is fantastic.

Interesting but flawed biography , 10 Jan 2007
Simon Winchester tells the largely forgotten story of self-taught geologist William Smith, the father of modern geology. Though the "barely educated lower middle class scholar takes on academic and social establishments and (eventually) wins" formula is not exactly original, the book is pacy enough and the human and scientific interests well balanced enough to keep it an enthralling read.

William Smith was the son of an Oxfordshire blacksmith. His childhood fascination with rocks and fossils led to his employment as a surveyor of mines and builder of canals, and to his discovery that the rocks of his native county lay in strata, always in the same order and always bearing the same unique fossils in each layer. He theorised that this pattern would be replicated throughout Britain, and that the fossils themselves showed that the layers of rocks were layed down at different times. Though to the twenty-first century, this does not sound very revolutionary, to the late eighteenth, before Darwin and when Bishop Ussher's dating of the divine creation of the Earth to 4004 B.C. was still popularly accepted, it was unheard of.

Smith's reputation spread, and soon his professional services were in demand throughout the country, allowing him also to test his geological theories; he astonished his patrons by being able to predict almost on sight whether their lands held coal strata. His plan was to produce a map of the geology of the entire British Isles.

Unfortunately, financial imprudence and lack of social standing, as well as possibly the stigma of an apparently insane wife and the professional jealously of his rivals, damaged Smith's career to such an extent that he was imprisoned for debt. These circumstances are not so well covered by Winchester; I suspect that Smith's diary is by so much the primary source here that he is only able to retell the story Smith himself recorded. The details of the "nymphomaniac" wife, for example, are particularly scanty.

This is unfortunate. For the most part, the book is very lively, easy to read, and Smith's story seems to hold a personal fascination for Winchester. In part, this is explained by a central chapter containing a childhood memoir from the author, on his finding of an ammonite on a Dorset beach; this did, I have to say, sit rather uncomfortably in the middle of Smith's biography; it might just have worked better as a prologue. And the assertion that amateur palaeontology is "no more than the mark of the nerd" is hardly appropriate in such a book! We forgive Winchester his failings though; we are too busy routing for Smith.


Repetitive repetitive repetitive, 06 Jun 2006
I had to give up reading this book, which I found very interesting because I couldn't cope with the author labouring the point. Take this example from page 172 of my copy:

For anyone today to walk eastwards, from Dorset to Dover along this coastline, just as William Smith had walked eastwards along the Somerset Coal Canal from Dunkerton to Limpley Stoke some two centuries before, is to walk forwards in geological time - is to walk away from and out of the older rocks and towards and into the newer. The cliffs that ranged before me now were each made of rocks that were successively younger than those in the cliffs that ranged behind me. The more distantly ahead of me they ranged, the younger and younger they became - so that those lost in the shimmering haze of the afternoon belonged to whole stages and epochs of geological time that were far more recent than those beside and behind me.

Apart from the fact that the reader is by now quite familiar with the starting and finishing point of the Somerset Coal Canal and with the fact that Smith lived 200 years ago (this fact is repeated many times as either "200 years ago" or "two centuries before")the author has now told us that the rocks get younger as one walks from Dorset to Dover 4 times in one paragraph.

I just couldn't take it anymore!

Almost interesting, 20 Jan 2006
I really tried to enjoy this book, yet despite one failed and one successful attempt at finishing it, I was left ultimately disappointed.
The subject is potentially enthralling, but the writing style and pretension of the author result in a book that is repetitive and difficult to read.
I have two main objections to this book, first, the excessive use of footnotes on almost every page. Reading these notes results in a book that fails to flow, and is consequently difficult to read. Not reading these notes would involve ignoring almost a third of the provided text.
Second, the author’s over heightened self importance, leading to an entire chapter (in which the author discusses his finding of a fossil during childhood) that adds nothing to the book, and would be better removed entirely.
Essentially the author appears undecided as to whether this book is his personal autobiography, or the biography of William Smith.

Intriguing book about one of the fathers of geology, 09 May 2005
I admit it... I'd never heard of William Smith. In fact the reason I picked up this book was it seemed an interesting title and I'd read a couple of other Simon Winchester books and found them to be a really interesting read.

William Smith was a self-taught geologist who recognised that in different parts of Britain the underground rock structure was different. He therefore took it upon himself to create an underground map of Britain showing how the various rock formations co-exist.

The narration of Smith's life is fascinating, encompassing a determination to succeed despite being a blacksmith's son (seen at that time as being an unsuitable background for someone wishing to mix with aristocracy). It tells of how this desire resulted in bankruptcy, prison, but only years later getting some of the recognition he deserved.

I would definitely recommend this book if you have read other Simon Winchester books before, or if you are interested in learning a bit about geology and how this science started out.

Inspections and Reports on Dwellings: Assessing Age, 27 Sep 2007
This book gives a real insight in the ageing of building without getting lost in the construction process

Excellent Book, 17 Nov 2007
This is a wonderful book that has lasted on our coffee table for longer than most!

The book steps through history from the earliest maps to the latest digital offerings. Each page has a full size extract from the map in question and a facing page that gives background and often a small thumbnail of the context or some detail of the whole. The pages are arranged and cross-referenced in date order. Some of the more striking maps have additional double page spreads, and there are two-page commentaries on tangental topics from time to time.

The text is fascinating and brings lots of world history that I kind-of new about into a new context: the gradually expanding knowledge of the world. Seeing how california went from island to peninsula, how the fabled southern continent appears and disappears, how sea-monsters gradually die out, who spain, the netherlands or the UK is at war with, and so on.

I suspect this isn't a book that will teach map-fans much (but is so beautiful to own nontheless), but for those with a casual interest I think it is a complete gem.

History of the influence of maps, not of maps, 08 Mar 2006
Beautifully produced book which concentrates on the political and social history of maps rather than the details of mapping and cartography.

Beautiful History of Maps, 24 Jan 2006
This is a beautifully produced book - with large pages displaying the example maps in excellent resolution.
The author takes a historical trip from the very earliest maps, scratched on whatever came to hand, up to the latest satellite images of the earth - which are more photograph than map.
The book also follows the story of human civilisation, and explains how maps have been pivotal in many phases of history - for explorers, the military, planners etc.
My only gripe is that the text provided for each map is limited to one (facing) page - which limits the potential for detail.

Makes measurement understandable, 10 Oct 2007
I have been working as an estimator for 5 years and thought i understood measurement. When studying for a diploma this book was indispensable for the measurement assignments.

I would recommend this book to anyone studying measurement.

Really interesting book, 07 Oct 2008
This book is brilliant! It uses maps of the world to display data by distorting the physical size of countries according to the relevant data - the result is a very visual feel for the data - much more powerful than figures or words could be. Every page has a global map displaying a different set of data and the range of data is huge, spanning from spread of diseases to energy use, from prevalence of national disasters to effectiveness of legal systems.

The book is pretty large and an ideal coffee table read. You don't need to be particularly analytical to get a lot from it - just need to be interested in the world. A fantastic new way of looking at the world.

If you're buying a house, buy this first, 07 Apr 2006
If you're buying a house, building one, or simply don't know your pargetting from your parapets, then this book is for you. It's thin enough that you can read it, yet the large format allows for several line drawings on every page. Reading this book taught me more than any other pile of textbooks about how houses were put together, how they fall apart and how to put them back again. It's a paragon of clear and legible writing and the scope covers all those types of building work that you're likely to encounter in UK domestic housing; from early-Victoriana to modern insulation systems. No longer need you be baffled by batts or fail to understand a U value. Highly recommended, and the best bargain anyone buying a house more than 10 years old could find.

Easy reading, 17 Apr 2004
I have got a number of constuction books in my arsenal to help me through the construction of a house extension - this one is the one I turn to first. Covering all the stages of building in a very clear but suffciently detailed way, it has been enough to guide me through various stages of the build with no extra help. What you don't find in these pages you'll only get in the Building regs themselves (which I recommend you get!).

This is an excellent book for construction students, 04 Nov 2001
I think this book is a very good book for construction students, it has everything in it from foundations to the roofs of a building. it also has alot of good diagrams in it, which is useful in the construction tecnology lesson at uni or at college. This is a must buy book

A visual treat, 10 Jan 2008
This is a beautiful book, worthy of pride-of-place on your coffee table or your library shelf. If you're a "map person," you will relish hundreds of illustrations published between the covers. These generously-sized images give you a real opportunity to pore over the details on historical maps, and the accompanying text will teach you something new.
It is an ambitious undertaking to publish a book like this, and Simon Foxell has certainly done justice to his topic. From the famous (eg Hollar's Panorama) to the obscure, the maps are presented in full colour with extended captions. Foxell provides historical context and analyses the role of maps and the information they provide. Open the book to any page, and you'll find something to delight your eyes and tickle your brain.
A great gift for your favourite London-ophile (if that's even a word!).

Both entertaining and educating, 21 Nov 2008
Simon Winchester admits in this book that it is not a scholarly work and he is gracious enough to point toward other works that are. What we do get is a well written account of William Smith the Father of Geology that a layman like myself can understand. I am a complete numpty when it comes to Geology, social history and engineering. It was a pleasant surprise to me when I came away from this book having been enlightened. I think perhaps it was the likes of me that Mr Winchester aimed his book at. Well the arrow struck home.
Now I know something about how the differnt rock layers were created over immense time periods. I know more about the different types of fossil. I know a little more about canal and mine building. I am aware of how cruel the class system could be in Smiths time during the late 1700s and the early 1800s. I have in short become a bore to my wife.
I live not far from Bath and on my last visit looked closely at the Oolite stone that Smith was so fond of. This is a fascinating bit of local history for me and here I was totally unaware we had a hero from the past that is worthy of national praise. Winchester has certainly convinced me that the map Smith created all by his own efforts is a miracle indeed.
If you want an easy read of subjects that might elude you in more studious works, then this is the book for you. A big thank you to Simon Winchester for both entertaining and educating this poor air head. To such an extent I bought my first serious fossil in Morocco whilst on a recent holiday. And it is fantastic.

Interesting but flawed biography , 10 Jan 2007
Simon Winchester tells the largely forgotten story of self-taught geologist William Smith, the father of modern geology. Though the "barely educated lower middle class scholar takes on academic and social establishments and (eventually) wins" formula is not exactly original, the book is pacy enough and the human and scientific interests well balanced enough to keep it an enthralling read.

William Smith was the son of an Oxfordshire blacksmith. His childhood fascination with rocks and fossils led to his employment as a surveyor of mines and builder of canals, and to his discovery that the rocks of his native county lay in strata, always in the same order and always bearing the same unique fossils in each layer. He theorised that this pattern would be replicated throughout Britain, and that the fossils themselves showed that the layers of rocks were layed down at different times. Though to the twenty-first century, this does not sound very revolutionary, to the late eighteenth, before Darwin and when Bishop Ussher's dating of the divine creation of the Earth to 4004 B.C. was still popularly accepted, it was unheard of.

Smith's reputation spread, and soon his professional services were in demand throughout the country, allowing him also to test his geological theories; he astonished his patrons by being able to predict almost on sight whether their lands held coal strata. His plan was to produce a map of the geology of the entire British Isles.

Unfortunately, financial imprudence and lack of social standing, as well as possibly the stigma of an apparently insane wife and the professional jealously of his rivals, damaged Smith's career to such an extent that he was imprisoned for debt. These circumstances are not so well covered by Winchester; I suspect that Smith's diary is by so much the primary source here that he is only able to retell the story Smith himself recorded. The details of the "nymphomaniac" wife, for example, are particularly scanty.

This is unfortunate. For the most part, the book is very lively, easy to read, and Smith's story seems to hold a personal fascination for Winchester. In part, this is explained by a central chapter containing a childhood memoir from the author, on his finding of an ammonite on a Dorset beach; this did, I have to say, sit rather uncomfortably in the middle of Smith's biography; it might just have worked better as a prologue. And the assertion that amateur palaeontology is "no more than the mark of the nerd" is hardly appropriate in such a book! We forgive Winchester his failings though; we are too busy routing for Smith.


Repetitive repetitive repetitive, 06 Jun 2006
I had to give up reading this book, which I found very interesting because I couldn't cope with the author labouring the point. Take this example from page 172 of my copy:

For anyone today to walk eastwards, from Dorset to Dover along this coastline, just as William Smith had walked eastwards along the Somerset Coal Canal from Dunkerton to Limpley Stoke some two centuries before, is to walk forwards in geological time - is to walk away from and out of the older rocks and towards and into the newer. The cliffs that ranged before me now were each made of rocks that were successively younger than those in the cliffs that ranged behind me. The more distantly ahead of me they ranged, the younger and younger they became - so that those lost in the shimmering haze of the afternoon belonged to whole stages and epochs of geological time that were far more recent than those beside and behind me.

Apart from the fact that the reader is by now quite familiar with the starting and finishing point of the Somerset Coal Canal and with the fact that Smith lived 200 years ago (this fact is repeated many times as either "200 years ago" or "two centuries before")the author has now told us that the rocks get younger as one walks from Dorset to Dover 4 times in one paragraph.

I just couldn't take it anymore!

Almost interesting, 20 Jan 2006
I really tried to enjoy this book, yet despite one failed and one successful attempt at finishing it, I was left ultimately disappointed.
The subject is potentially enthralling, but the writing style and pretension of the author result in a book that is repetitive and difficult to read.
I have two main objections to this book, first, the excessive use of footnotes on almost every page. Reading these notes results in a book that fails to flow, and is consequently difficult to read. Not reading these notes would involve ignoring almost a third of the provided text.
Second, the author’s over heightened self importance, leading to an entire chapter (in which the author discusses his finding of a fossil during childhood) that adds nothing to the book, and would be better removed entirely.
Essentially the author appears undecided as to whether this book is his personal autobiography, or the biography of William Smith.

Intriguing book about one of the fathers of geology, 09 May 2005
I admit it... I'd never heard of William Smith. In fact the reason I picked up this book was it seemed an interesting title and I'd read a couple of other Simon Winchester books and found them to be a really interesting read.

William Smith was a self-taught geologist who recognised that in different parts of Britain the underground rock structure was different. He therefore took it upon himself to create an underground map of Britain showing how the various rock formations co-exist.

The narration of Smith's life is fascinating, encompassing a determination to succeed despite being a blacksmith's son (seen at that time as being an unsuitable background for someone wishing to mix with aristocracy). It tells of how this desire resulted in bankruptcy, prison, but only years later getting some of the recognition he deserved.

I would definitely recommend this book if you have read other Simon Winchester books before, or if you are interested in learning a bit about geology and how this science started out.

Inspections and Reports on Dwellings: Assessing Age, 27 Sep 2007
This book gives a real insight in the ageing of building without getting lost in the construction process

Excellent Book, 17 Nov 2007
This is a wonderful book that has lasted on our coffee table for longer than most!

The book steps through history from the earliest maps to the latest digital offerings. Each page has a full size extract from the map in question and a facing page that gives background and often a small thumbnail of the context or some detail of the whole. The pages are arranged and cross-referenced in date order. Some of the more striking maps have additional double page spreads, and there are two-page commentaries on tangental topics from time to time.

The text is fascinating and brings lots of world history that I kind-of new about into a new context: the gradually expanding knowledge of the world. Seeing how california went from island to peninsula, how the fabled southern continent appears and disappears, how sea-monsters gradually die out, who spain, the netherlands or the UK is at war with, and so on.

I suspect this isn't a book that will teach map-fans much (but is so beautiful to own nontheless), but for those with a casual interest I think it is a complete gem.

History of the influence of maps, not of maps, 08 Mar 2006
Beautifully produced book which concentrates on the political and social history of maps rather than the details of mapping and cartography.

Beautiful History of Maps, 24 Jan 2006
This is a beautifully produced book - with large pages displaying the example maps in excellent resolution.
The author takes a historical trip from the very earliest maps, scratched on whatever came to hand, up to the latest satellite images of the earth - which are more photograph than map.
The book also follows the story of human civilisation, and explains how maps have been pivotal in many phases of history - for explorers, the military, planners etc.
My only gripe is that the text provided for each map is limited to one (facing) page - which limits the potential for detail.

Makes measurement understandable, 10 Oct 2007
I have been working as an estimator for 5 years and thought i understood measurement. When studying for a diploma this book was indispensable for the measurement assignments.

I would recommend this book to anyone studying measurement.

Essential, 05 Mar 2008
I bought this to supplement my final year Geography degree. It was a core text in the GIS course and for good reason. It described processes and also, examples and case studies of how they're applied!

In short - a superb, well written entry level text.

Essential grounding in basic & advanced applications of GIS., 01 Dec 1999
A well written text that is highly accessible to both the reader who has no previous knowledge in GIS, and the reader who wishes to consolidate and extend their knowledge. Littered with extensive examples on the key concepts and applications of GIS, each chapter is clearly written and provides an intelligent synopsis on the area in question. Illustrations, graphics and the glossary supplement the text, aiding in understanding for the unknowledgable reader; whilst references and suggestions for further study at the end of each chapter provide the more informed reader with opportunities to increase the depth of their knowledge in specific areas. An essential book for anyone who wishes to learn, or further their knowledge on GIS.

Essential grounding in basic & advanced applications of GIS., 01 Dec 1999
A well written text that is highly accessible to both the reader who has no previous knowledge in GIS, and the reader who wishes to consolidate and extend their knowledge. Littered with extensive examples on the key concepts and applications of GIS, each chapter is clearly written and provides an intelligent synopsis on the area in question. Illustrations, graphics and the glossary supplement the text, aiding in understanding for the unknowledgable reader; whilst references and suggestions for further study at the end of each chapter provide the more informed reader with opportunities to increase the depth of their knowledge in specific areas. An essential book for anyone who wishes to learn, or further their knowledge on GIS.

Excellent Introductory Level GIS book, 17 Dec 1998
This book introduces the basic principles of GIS from the perspective of a new user. Topics are covered with enough depth so that the book will also be beneficial to longer-term users. The writing style, graphics and case studies are presented in a simple and easy to read format. The book could be used as a text for a course or read by anyone interested in learning the fundamentals behind GIS technology. There is also a web site for the book that will allow readers access to current trends in GIS and URLs for case studies.

Really interesting book, 07 Oct 2008
This book is brilliant! It uses maps of the world to display data by distorting the physical size of countries according to the relevant data - the result is a very visual feel for the data - much more powerful than figures or words could be. Every page has a global map displaying a different set of data and the range of data is huge, spanning from spread of diseases to energy use, from prevalence of national disasters to effectiveness of legal systems.

The book is pretty large and an ideal coffee table read. You don't need to be particularly analytical to get a lot from it - just need to be interested in the world. A fantastic new way of looking at the world.

If you're buying a house, buy this first, 07 Apr 2006
If you're buying a house, building one, or simply don't know your pargetting from your parapets, then this book is for you. It's thin enough that you can read it, yet the large format allows for several line drawings on every page. Reading this book taught me more than any other pile of textbooks about how houses were put together, how they fall apart and how to put them back again. It's a paragon of clear and legible writing and the scope covers all those types of building work that you're likely to encounter in UK domestic housing; from early-Victoriana to modern insulation systems. No longer need you be baffled by batts or fail to understand a U value. Highly recommended, and the best bargain anyone buying a house more than 10 years old could find.

Easy reading, 17 Apr 2004
I have got a number of constuction books in my arsenal to help me through the construction of a house extension - this one is the one I turn to first. Covering all the stages of building in a very clear but suffciently detailed way, it has been enough to guide me through various stages of the build with no extra help. What you don't find in these pages you'll only get in the Building regs themselves (which I recommend you get!).

This is an excellent book for construction students, 04 Nov 2001
I think this book is a very good book for construction students, it has everything in it from foundations to the roofs of a building. it also has alot of good diagrams in it, which is useful in the construction tecnology lesson at uni or at college. This is a must buy book

A visual treat, 10 Jan 2008
This is a beautiful book, worthy of pride-of-place on your coffee table or your library shelf. If you're a "map person," you will relish hundreds of illustrations published between the covers. These generously-sized images give you a real opportunity to pore over the details on historical maps, and the accompanying text will teach you something new.
It is an ambitious undertaking to publish a book like this, and Simon Foxell has certainly done justice to his topic. From the famous (eg Hollar's Panorama) to the obscure, the maps are presented in full colour with extended captions. Foxell provides historical context and analyses the role of maps and the information they provide. Open the book to any page, and you'll find something to delight your eyes and tickle your brain.
A great gift for your favourite London-ophile (if that's even a word!).

Both entertaining and educating, 21 Nov 2008
Simon Winchester admits in this book that it is not a scholarly work and he is gracious enough to point toward other works that are. What we do get is a well written account of William Smith the Father of Geology that a layman like myself can understand. I am a complete numpty when it comes to Geology, social history and engineering. It was a pleasant surprise to me when I came away from this book having been enlightened. I think perhaps it was the likes of me that Mr Winchester aimed his book at. Well the arrow struck home.
Now I know something about how the differnt rock layers were created over immense time periods. I know more about the different types of fossil. I know a little more about canal and mine building. I am aware of how cruel the class system could be in Smiths time during the late 1700s and the early 1800s. I have in short become a bore to my wife.
I live not far from Bath and on my last visit looked closely at the Oolite stone that Smith was so fond of. This is a fascinating bit of local history for me and here I was totally unaware we had a hero from the past that is worthy of national praise. Winchester has certainly convinced me that the map Smith created all by his own efforts is a miracle indeed.
If you want an easy read of subjects that might elude you in more studious works, then this is the book for you. A big thank you to Simon Winchester for both entertaining and educating this poor air head. To such an extent I bought my first serious fossil in Morocco whilst on a recent holiday. And it is fantastic.

Interesting but flawed biography , 10 Jan 2007
Simon Winchester tells the largely forgotten story of self-taught geologist William Smith, the father of modern geology. Though the "barely educated lower middle class scholar takes on academic and social establishments and (eventually) wins" formula is not exactly original, the book is pacy enough and the human and scientific interests well balanced enough to keep it an enthralling read.

William Smith was the son of an Oxfordshire blacksmith. His childhood fascination with rocks and fossils led to his employment as a surveyor of mines and builder of canals, and to his discovery that the rocks of his native county lay in strata, always in the same order and always bearing the same unique fossils in each layer. He theorised that this pattern would be replicated throughout Britain, and that the fossils themselves showed that the layers of rocks were layed down at different times. Though to the twenty-first century, this does not sound very revolutionary, to the late eighteenth, before Darwin and when Bishop Ussher's dating of the divine creation of the Earth to 4004 B.C. was still popularly accepted, it was unheard of.

Smith's reputation spread, and soon his professional services were in demand throughout the country, allowing him also to test his geological theories; he astonished his patrons by being able to predict almost on sight whether their lands held coal strata. His plan was to produce a map of the geology of the entire British Isles.

Unfortunately, financial imprudence and lack of social standing, as well as possibly the stigma of an apparently insane wife and the professional jealously of his rivals, damaged Smith's career to such an extent that he was imprisoned for debt. These circumstances are not so well covered by Winchester; I suspect that Smith's