Fletcher David

Nowadays, we take for granted the ready availability of maps of all kinds. In mid-Tudor England, they were rare. All this was to change in 1579 when Christopher Saxton, a farmer from the West Riding of Yorkshire, became the first cartographer to make a published atlas of all the counties of England and Wales. This book traces the story of Saxton’s life and legacy by reconstructing his extraordinary mapmaking project alongside the crucial nature of the support and encouragement he received from Queen Elizabeth I and her court. Saxton’s atlas became the template for most detailed maps of the country for almost two centuries: it is hard to exaggerate its importance. For many, his atlas provided the first detailed image of England and Wales they had ever seen, showing the Elizabethan kingdom as a whole and in its constituent parts. This lavishly illustrated book reproduces all Saxton’s county maps together with many other illustrations revealing the forebears and successors to this groundbreaking work. Today, Saxton’s maps give us an invaluable cartographic snapshot of late Tudor England.

Warren found being propelled back through time to his long-ago university days unnerving in the extreme. When he then realised that this time shift had been combined not only with the return of his long-lost youthful body and a complete understanding of a long-abandoned degree subject, but also with a full recollection of his post-university life, he was more than just unnerved. He was terrified. In fact, it took him quite some time to come to terms with his very novel situation, and even longer to realise what amazing opportunities this situation might present. After all, it seemed that he could now embark on an entirely new life, and one that would no doubt be much enhanced by his having a knowledge of what the future had in store. Furthermore – and best of all – he could now track down his soulmate from his first life, and make quite sure she fell in love with him all over again. What could possibly go wrong? And what could possibly go right?