Nigel Peake’s “Maps” Book – Green Chair Press Blog

As you might tell from my recent posts, I’ve become map obsessed — thinking about them, looking at them, drawing them, designing a book and several broadsides. In my searches I stumbled on Nigel Peake’s Maps, a book of his drawings sub-titled “Fields, Paths, Forests, Blocks, Places and Surrounds.” The back matter says he is

Documenting small time adventures and excursions outwith a mile radius from where I call home. From train rides facing backwards, to crammed bus rides in tiny hill-top towns, to bike rides through the backyards of Europe. Records of the vast, unyielding concrete miles of Shanghai, to the paths between mountains and forests in late night French countryside to the old paint splattered wooden floor in London that I sleep on from time to time. In addition to this there are also some imaginings of possible places — cities built from train tunnels and underground arches to invisible concrete cities.

I ordered the book immediately (from a interesting shop in Edinburgh called Analogue Books). It’s full of quirky detailed drawings with wonderful names — the 2 below are called “Mountains — Ballytrustan” and “Utopian Town, Part II.” (Ballytrustan is a parish in County Down, Ireland.) And an interesting and well-written essay in the middle on mapping. Nigel has a website and blog where you can see his drawings (not restricted to maps).