Around the World in 80 Maps by Clare Hibbert (British Library Press)

Was Geography anyone's favourite subject at school? I'm guessing it might have been Clare Hibbert's perhaps...
Clare is definitely the Queen of Maps and she has published several books on geographical subjects.

Here she splices together tons of amazing facts and nuggets of information, also pulling amazing historical maps from the British Library collection in the stunning "Around the World in 80 Maps"

Following on from Jules Verne's brave hero Phileas Fogg (you've no idea how many kids probably think that it was Willy Fogg!), Clare's book tracks a journey across the globe with 80 different maps of global territories to dazzle and delight.

It's amazing to think how accurate these maps were, considering the lack of GPS and technology - but ancient cartographers had an amazing amount of insight and knowledge, and tons of clever tricks on how to gather information for their detailed drawings, all of which Clare covers in this book.

It might sound fairly boring to folk who really struggled to stay awake in Geography lessons in school, but it's actually an amazingly detailed and fascinating look at history through the eyes of people who began to shape the way we look at our world many centuries before we could all dive into a browser and call up Google Maps.

"Around the World in 80 Maps" by Clare Hibbert is out on 7th September 2017, published by British Library Press (kindly supplied for review).