“The Shell Road Atlas” by Andrew Taylor
Nowhere along here do the maps offer much more than a hope we’re heading the right way. Each page offers a new start and confirmation of the Irish saying ‘If you want to get there you shouldn’t be starting from here.’ The place names are printed so small they’re self-effacing, roads wander and peter out like creeks in a drought, mountains of course are paper flat and the red hatching of a firing range is mute but enticing. Cartographers in some quiet studios have traced their reveries across these pages of beautiful artwork, while here wind blows, birds sing, and…