It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
Small Island

Small Island

12 Maps That Explain The History of Britain

Summary

Discover the 12 crucial moments in Britain's past that will answer the greatest questions for our future in this richly insightful and fascinating history

'A richly entertaining canter through the country's past. Engrossing' INDEPENDENT
___________

What is Britain?
Where lie its boundaries?
Why are they always changing?
Are we a small island or a big idea?
What will we look like next?

In Small Island: 12 Maps that Explain the History of Britain, Philip Parker answers these and other crucial questions about this country and its peoples.

By pondering our intertwined geography and history, he shows how the past has made Britain and how we might yet shape its future.

Reviews

  • Charting the formation and then break-up of British rule, Small Island provides a richly entertaining canter through the country's past. An engrossing book, offering stimulating observations about our cultural evolution as well as predictions for Britain's future.
    Independent

About the author

Philip Parker

Philip Parker is a writer, consultant and publisher specializing in ancient and medieval political and military systems. He studied history at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and is the author of A History of Britain in Maps (2016), the DK Eyewitness Companion Guide to World History (2010) and many more. He was the general editor of Anova's Great Trade Routes (2010), and winner of a Certificate of Merit for the Mountbatten Maritime Award in the Maritime Media Awards 2013. As a publisher he ran The Times books list, including works on ancient civilizations and The Times History of the World.

He lives in London with his partner and daughter.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more