Published By: The National Trust
Pages: 136
Released On: 11/11/2025
All the latest data is used to map Britain’s preoccupations and quirks – from favourite crisp flavours to morris dancers, from oldest pubs to most haunted places. A brilliantly dip-inable and sharable little book. Packed with information too good to keep to yourself.
A fun and fascinating little book that uses the latest data to map everything that is very British. You’ll find answers to important questions like:
Where in Britain has the most roundabouts? The longest pier? The most days of rain? The most trainspotters? The most robins? The silliest placenames? The most garden centres?
What crisp flavour is favourite in Manchester? How do people in Devon say ‘Scone’? Which countries give us ‘nil points’ most often in Eurovision? (Holland, is it something we said?) Where exactly are German Bight and Cromarty?
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and The National Trust for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
Who knew maps could make such an entertaining topic for a book!
Each map in this book as a page of text to go with it, explaining what it shows and some statistics. The text portions are very short and concise, only a couple of paragraphs. Personally, I could have done with a bit more to get my teeth into but overall there is a nice balance between the text and maps.
The amount of research Helen must have done is impressive. I don’t know how accurate it is and I’m not about to research every single map to find the truth, but it reads true and is very interesting and gives us things I had never thought about before.
I am a bit of a nerd so love learning facts and this has definitely helped me with that. Some of it is stupid facts that you will never nee in your life, but I still like to know them.
There’s a plethora of topics covered in the maps, including weird place names, nicknames, history, lighthouses, shipwrecks, population density,, castles and spooky sites, steam trains, museums, pubs, food and drink, trees. animals, dinosaurs, weather, Christmas, transport, hobbies, sports, places called “Bottom”, and controversially, how to pronounce the word scone.
There really is a map in here for everyone and I think it would appeal to all ages.
Books By Your Bedside 