A fascinating and surprising history of the world told through the lines people have drawn on
maps described by Richard Osman as 'an absolutely incredible present for anyone who's
interested in the world at all which is sort of all of us' ( The Rest Is Entertainment
podcast) 'Fascinating' TOM HOLLAND 'A delight from start to finish' MIRANDA SAWYER 'A
novel and fascinating perspective on world history' BILL BRYSON 'By turns surprising funny
bleak ridiculous or all four of those at once' GIDEON DEFOE 'I love this book I love Jonn
Elledge I love the way he looks at the world' MARINA HYDE People have been drawing lines on
maps for as long as there have been maps to draw on. Sometimes rooted in physical geography
sometimes entirely arbitrary these lines might often have looked very different if a war or
treaty or the decisions of a handful of tired Europeans had gone a different way. By telling
the stories of these borders we can learn a lot about how political identities are shaped why
the world looks the way it does - and about the scale of human folly. From the Roman attempts
to define the boundaries of civilisation to the secret British-French agreement to carve up
the Ottoman Empire during the First World War to the reason why landlocked Bolivia still
maintains a navy this is a fascinating witty and surprising look at the history of the world
told through its borders. The Sunday Times No 1 Bestseller April 2025 More praise for 47
BORDERS: 'You'll never look at a map the same way again' STEPHEN BUSH '[A] clever
confounding history' PATRICK MAGUIRE 'A witty grand tour' DORIAN LYNSKEY 'Warm funny and
sharply political' PHIL TINLINE
