A History of the World in Twelve Maps, By Jerry Brotton

Stretching from Babylon to Google Earth, this truly original work of global history will - literally - alter your world-view. Pace EC Bentley, chaps make maps.

Brotton's dozen examples of the flattened globe track the course of map-making visions from the sacred to exploratory, the imperial to the digital.

Compare Mercator (1569), and its European tilt, with Peters (1973), and its long South, and it's clear that projections have principles.

The neutral map is an "idealistic fantasy". But only via cartographers can we imagine a planetary home.