This beautifully-illustrated book is packed with information about the physical creation of maps from the mid-sixteenth to late eighteenth centuries. It encompasses the entire historic County Palatine of Lancaster, which stretched from the southern Lake District to modern Cheshire, taking in both Manchester and Liverpool. A huge variety of landscape is represented in the maps: bustling cities, small towns and villages, the scenic Western Pennines, verdant plains and beautiful coastline such as Morecambe Bay. Along the way there are intriguing diversions - maps on playing cards, maps in magazines, maps in atlases - and the author shares many fascinating observations about the men who created maps, those who borrowed (or stole) their work, and some of the people who owned the finished products. Harold Whitaker's seminal work A Descriptive List of the Printed Maps of Lancashire 1577-1900 (Chetham Society, 1938) is fully updated through the text and appendices.