Golden Atlas

A spectacular visual history of exploration and cartography “perfect for the armchair adventurer historian” (National Geographic).

The Golden Atlas reveals how the world came to be known, featuring a magnificent gallery of exceptionally rare, hand-colored antique maps, paintings, and engravings, many of which can only be found in the author’s collection. The reader is taken on a breathtaking, chronological expedition through Ancient Babylonian geography and Marco Polo’s journey to the Mongol Khan on to buccaneers ransacking the Caribbean and the voyages of seafarers such as Captain Cook and fearless African pathfinders.

Their engaging, compelling stories vividly bring to life a motley collection of heroic explorers, treasure-hunters, and death-dealing villains—all of them accompanied by eye-grabbing illustrations from rare maps, charts, and manuscripts.

The Golden Atlas takes you back to a world of darkness and peril, placing you on storm-lashed ships, frozen wastelands and the shores of hostile territories to see how the lines were drawn to form the shape of the modern world. The author’s previous book, The Phantom Atlas, was a critically acclaimed international bestseller, described by Jonathan Ross as “a spectacular, enjoyable and eye-opening read” and this new book is sure to follow suit.

Praise for The Golden Atlas

“Stunning . . . divine.” —Stephen Fry

“A fabulous book, good enough to eat with a spoon! Marvelous.” —John Lloyd, creator of QI

“Introduces us to a whole different way of looking at maps. Great illustrations, most engaging—the author is just a mine of information.” —Simon Mayo’s Books of the Year