Malcolm Swanston – författare

How to Draw a Map is a fascinating meditation on the centuries-old art of map-making, from the first astronomical maps to the sophisticated GPS guides of today.Maps have influenced humanity in many unexpected ways: life, death, sexual reproduction, espionage, war and peace. How to Draw a Map traces the story of mapmaking – cartography – from the first scratchings on the cave wall to the detailed high-tech ‘navigator’. This is the story of human conceptions, often misconceptions, of our world. It is also a very personal story about a mapmaker’s journey through life – the exciting new perspectives and the occasional misadventures.Over the last 5,000 years societies and empires have risen and fallen; most, if not all, attempt to record their own visions of our world. In the 15th century, Europeans developed a global reach with their oceanic ships, exploring outward into the world, revealing new possibilities, peoples and opportunities. Mapmakers recorded this journey, revealing to us a window into past triumphs and disasters. The story continues into our own day when diplomats carve up our globe, presenting what we now see as the ‘modern’ world.In How to Draw a Map, father and son cartographers Alexander and Malcolm Swanston demonstrate the skill, creativity and care involved in the timeless art of creating maps – and what these artefacts reveal about the legion of mapmakers who went before us.

How to Draw a Map is a fascinating meditation on the centuries-old art of map-making, from the first astronomical maps to the sophisticated GPS guides of today.Maps have influenced humanity in many unexpected ways: life, death, sexual reproduction, espionage, war and peace. How to Draw a Map traces the story of mapmaking – cartography – from the first scratchings on the cave wall to the detailed high-tech ‘navigator’. This is the story of human conceptions, often misconceptions, of our world. It is also a very personal story about a mapmaker’s journey through life – the exciting new perspectives and the occasional misadventures.Over the last 5,000 years societies and empires have risen and fallen; most, if not all, attempt to record their own visions of our world. In the 15th century, Europeans developed a global reach with their oceanic ships, exploring outward into the world, revealing new possibilities, peoples and opportunities. Mapmakers recorded this journey, revealing to us a window into past triumphs and disasters. The story continues into our own day when diplomats carve up our globe, presenting what we now see as the ‘modern’ world.In How to Draw a Map, father and son cartographers Alexander and Malcolm Swanston demonstrate the skill, creativity and care involved in the timeless art of creating maps – and what these artefacts reveal about the legion of mapmakers who went before us.

No single human invention has changed the nature of war more that the development of the aeroplane. The History of Air Warfare is a highly illustrated and accessible account of the development of aerial warfare, from the first skirmishes over the Western Front in World War I to today’s hi-tech netcentric aerial battlespace. Developing from unpowered observation hot air balloons in the 18th century and even the older kite, aerial warfare has become a multibillion-dollar industry and has led to many advances in technology and techniques such as aerodynamics, propulsion, radar and use of composites and engineered materials such as carbon fibre. Featuring more than 120 complex computer-generated battle maps and graphics, the History of Air Warfare explores every major air battle to have taken place in the world’s skies, as well as documenting the air element of campaigns such as Operation Barbarossa and Operation Desert Storm. Extensively researched text tells the history and the stories behind these battles concisely and clearly.

No single human invention has changed the nature of war more that the development of the aeroplane. Air Warfare Illustrated Atlas is a highly illustrated and accessible account of the development of aerial warfare, from the first skirmishes over the Western Front in World War I to today’s hi-tech netcentric aerial battlespace over Ukraine. Developing from unpowered observation hot air balloons in the 18th century and even the older kite, aerial warfare has become a multibillion-dollar industry and has led to many advances in technology and techniques such as aerodynamics, propulsion, radar and use of composites and engineered materials such as carbon fibre. Featuring more than 120 complex computer-generated battle maps and graphics, Air Warfare Illustrated Atlas explores every major air battle to have taken place in the world’s skies, as well as documenting the air element of campaigns such as Operation Barbarossa and Operation Desert Storm. Extensively researched text tells the history and the stories behind these battles concisely and clearly, alongside more than 150 striking archive photographic images.