Phantom Islands

I've been reading the delightful Phantom Islands of the Atlantic by Donald S Johnson which describes how some people claimed to have found some islands that weren't, shall we say, actually there and they were included in maps for up to several hundred years and then they were quietly removed once mapmaking got better.

It's a lovely combination of the history of naval exploration and of cartography and Mr Johnson wears his learning very lightly. He explains when the islands first appeared and how mistakes or deceptions could have been made. I particularly liked the story of how the Hudson Bay Trading Company sought a royal patent for ownership an island they weren't ever able to find again (because it didn't exist) and two hundred years later their opponents accused them of hiding the location (at which point they renounced their claims. So far, it's made me think hard about how difficult it was for old time navigators sailing off into the beyond without being able to leave a trail of crumbs to find their way home again.

My Beloved said that he read this book immediately after reading Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World which gave him the impression that history was interesting and fun and he should read heaps of books like this. Then he discovered the sad truth that most popular history is badly written and overly technical. These two books, however, are fabulous.