This is the first in a series of annual themed compendiums to be published by Five Leaves gathering essays "from the vaults", from work in progress and some commissioned specifically for the collection. Contributors include Iain Sinclair, David McKie and Chris Arnot, writers from the London Review of Books and other academic journals, a journalist from the BBC World Service and several biographers. A curious rattle-bag of writing loosely based on the theme of maps, it covers subjects as disparate as Roman Britain, London fiction, poetry in Siberia, the lost cricket grounds of England, bread and pudding riots on the "English Riviera", art inspired by the north African desert and the death of Walter Benjamin in Portbou, Catalonia. Best of all, though, is a brief essay on the mapping of surnames via a website called Public Profiler, based on work carried out at University College London, which can plot namesakes across the world. You'll find yourself reaching for the mouse in no time and, as the author cautions, it may be a while before you do anything else.