What’s not a coincidence is that the British Board of Film Classification long used the Kintyre peninsula’s suggestive shape as the basis for its “Mull of Kintyre Rule” to determine if a movie with nude scenes was appropriate for general release. It’s just a coincidence that one of the region’s best-known landmarks, a block of sandstone off Arran’s northern coast, is known as the “Cock of Arran.”

Combining history, travel, politics, memoir and oblique observation in a highly readable, and often very funny, style, Mike Parker confesses how his own impressive map collection was founded on a virulent teenage shoplifting habit, ponders how a good leftie can be so gung-ho about British cartographic imperialism and wages a one-man war against the moronic blandishments of the Sat Nav age.You might notice on the map above that the Kintyre peninsula has a notably, er, phallic shape, especially in combination with the island of Arran dangling to the east. In Map Addict, we learn the location of what has officially been named by the OS as the most boring square kilometre in the land we visit the town fractured into dozens of little parcels of land split between two different countries and trek around many other weird borders of Britain and Europe we test the theories that the new city of Milton Keynes was built to a pagan alignment and that women can't read maps. Map Addict mixes wry observation with hard fact and considerable research, unearthing the offbeat, the unusual and the downright pedantic in a celebration of all things maps. There are some fine, dry tomes out there about the history and development of cartography: this is not one of them. They are the unsung heroes of life: Map Addict sings their song. At a stroke, they convey precise information about topography, layout, history, politics and power. Maps pepper logos, advertisements, illustrations, books, web pages and newspaper and magazine articles: they are a cipher for every area of human existence. On an average day, we will consult some form of map approximately a dozen times, often without even noticing: checking the A-Z, the road atlas or the Sat Nav, scanning the tube or bus map, a quick Google online or hours wasted flying over a virtual Earth, navigating a way around a shopping centre, watching the weather forecast, planning a walk or a trip, catching up on the news, booking a holiday or hotel. Maps not only show the world, they help it turn.

Map addict by mike parker