Which country doesn't have a national football team?Where is the town with no wifi?Who travelled further on tour: Taylor Swift or Coldplay?Which are the world's noisiest cities?How many countries are wider than the moon?Maps don't just show us where we are, they show us how we live. They reveal unexpected connections between far-flung places, they show how history has shaped geography, and they uncover fascinating facts that will spark your curiosity.

TOWER BLOCKS. FLYOVERS. STREETS IN THE SKY. ONCE, THIS WAS THE FUTURE. Was Britain's postwar rebuilding the height of midcentury chic or the concrete embodiment of Crap Towns? John Grindrod decided to find out how blitzed, slum-ridden and crumbling 'austerity Britain' became, in a few short years, a space-age world of concrete, steel and glass. On his journey he visits the sleepy Norfolk birthplace of Brutalism, the once-Blitzed city centre of Plymouth, the futuristic New Town of Cumbernau...

Secretly gay school bullies. Punks with make-up tips. Heroic hairdressers. Queer parents. Suburban pride marches. Police hassle.With nods of recognition and unexpected flirtations, chosen families and desperate escapes, this is a new way of seeing suburbia: a place where things aren't always as straightforward - or straight - as they seem.**'Breaks new ground' - David Kynaston'Grindrod is one of the best c...

A captivating exploration of Britain's most iconic contemporary buildings, from the Barratt home to the Millennium Dome.***TIMES BOOK OF THE WEEK*** 'A punchy polemic ... Highly readable.''A love letter to contemporary buildings and a fantastic account of recent British history, rich in humour.' NINA STIBBE'Brilliant, encyclopaedic, funny and often cutting.' DANNY DORLING'An...

A host of comedians, writers and viewers, including Rebecca Front, Andrew Collins, Kevin Eldon, Emma Kennedy, Richard Herring, Jim Shelley and David Quantick share funny and heartfelt rants and raves on everything from soaps to sitcoms, sci-fi to reality shows, HBO to QVC.All of TV is here: the age-old rift between BBC and ITV that tore families apart; the secret shame of crying at adverts; and those significant moments in life when television has made for an unforgettable backdrop...

A passionate and personal book about the writer's own love for a controversial architectural style.Whether you love or hate brutalist buildings, this book will explain what it is about them that elicits such strong feeling. You will understand the true power of concrete and of mammoth-sized buildings, but also some of the more subtle aspects of brutalist buildings that you may not have known or considered.Brutalist architecture, which flourished in the 1950...

'Evocative and intelligent' GuardianDiscover the secret history of our green belts.The first book to tell the story of Britain's green belts, Outskirts is at once a fascinating social history, a stirring evocation of the natural world, and a poignant tale of growing up in a place, and within a family, like no other.'Illuminating and enjoyable' David Kynaston, SpectatorGreen belts are part ...

Secretly gay school bullies. Punks with make-up tips. Heroic hairdressers. Queer parents. Suburban pride marches. Police hassle.With nods of recognition and unexpected flirtations, chosen families and desperate escapes, this is a new way of seeing suburbia: a place where things aren't always as straightforward - or straight - as they seem.**'Breaks new ground' - David Kynaston'Grindrod is one of the best c...

A captivating exploration of Britain's most iconic contemporary buildings, from the Barratt home to the Millennium Dome.***TIMES BOOK OF THE WEEK*** 'A punchy polemic ... Highly readable.''A love letter to contemporary buildings and a fantastic account of recent British history, rich in humour.' NINA STIBBE'Brilliant, encyclopaedic, funny and often cutting.' DANNY DORLING'...

Forgotten edgelands, furious battles, suburban mysteries - discover the secret history of our green belts.Green belts are part of the landscape and psyche of post-war Britain, but have led to conflicts at every level of society - between conservationists and developers, town and country, politicians and people, nimbys and the forces of progress.Growing up on 'the last road in London' on an estate at the edge of the woods, John Grindrod had a childhood that mirrored these te...

'FASCINATING' Daily Mail'FULL OF AMAZING FACTS' The QI ElvesEach of the United Kingdom's 124 postcode areas has a story to tell, an unexpected nugget to dust off and treasure.Mark Mason has embarked on a tour of the country, immersing himself in Britain's history on a roundabout journey from AB to ZE. On the lookout for interesting place names and unusual monuments, along the way he discovers what the Queen ...

As Britain moved from austerity to prosperity in the 1950s and 1960s, it became clear that British Railways needed to modernise its equipment and rationalise its network if it was to hold its own in the face of growing competition from road and air transport.After attempting to maintain pre-war networks and technology in the 1950s, a reversal of policy in the 1960s brought line closures, new liveries and the last breath of steam, as Dr Beeching and his successors s...