ReadItDaddy's First Book of the Week - Week Ending 8th November 2019: "Archipelago: An Atlas of Imagined Islands" edited by Huw Lewis-Jones, contributions from several artists (Thames and Hudson Books)

This week's first book of the week is an amazing piece of work, one of the most captivating atlases you'll ever see.

Only this time it's not a non-fiction book, in "An Atlas of Imagined Islands" edited by Huw Lewis-Jones, the title's a bit of a giveaway. All of the amazing maps, wrought in a ton of different artistic styles by an amazingly talented bunch of designers, authors and illustrators, are imaginary, plucked from the creative grey matter of these superb creatives.

Knotted together into a fantastic tome by Huw, who contributes his own map and a little of the inspiration for the Atlas - Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" - a book that captivated me as a kid, each author is given free reign to be inspired by Defoe's work but develop an idea in their own style.

So here's a brief selection. The book is absolutely packed with amazing maps so these will give you just a flavour of what's inside.

"Caligo" by Steph Von Reiswitz

"Moderna" by Ruta Briede

"Kaijuto" by Takayo Akiyama

We love the art, but we really love the descriptive way each author / illustrator develops a mythos around their islands, an idea, and sometimes these are more of a direct homage to Robinson Crusoe - sometimes they're very personal ideas to the creator themselves.

All in all it's absolutely mesmerising stuff, particularly if (like us) you just can't get enough of maps and atlases.

Sum this book up in a sentence: A stunning collection of imaginary lands from some of the top creatives working in and around publishing today, curated masterfully by Huw.

"An Atlas of Imagined Islands" edited by Huw Lewis is out now, published by Thames and Hudson (kindly supplied for review).