Atlas of Imagined Places: from Lilliput to Gotham City

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At the more literary end is Valley Fields from PG Wodehouse and Ham - the island from Book of Dave, formerly known as Hampstead.

From Stephen King's Salem's Lot to the superhero land of Wakanda, from Lilliput of Gulliver's Travels to Springfield in The Simpsons, this is a wondrous atlas of imagined places around the world. This was one of the more challenging maps to design, in that there are no precedents for maps of both regions together on the same projection (besides maps of the whole world or the continent of Asia). Ana de Lima’s whimsical, softly colored illustrations are filled with surprising details that reward close examination, while Mia Cassany’s soothing narrator is a nameless fellow traveler. of the world's most stunning city maps show exactly where your favourite characters lived, loved, worked and played.

The maps also pinpoint dozens of famous fictional organisations and businesses — Central Perk, Ghostbusters HQ, Torchwood, Cyberdyne Sytems, Sterling Cooper, Tyrell Corporation, to name just a few of the more famous examples. In addition to the maps and the accompanying essays describing the twisty logic that the authors used to finally pin point where these famous locations from fiction are (most likely) located, the Atlas also includes an extensive index along with map coordinates so it is easy to find a particular someplace on the maps (although I think you’ll agree that a magnifying glass is essential equipment for reading these thousands of entries). Each one was designed to reflect a culture or traditional designs unique to each continent or region.

Sometimes these are easy to work out, but other times a bit of detective work is needed and the authors have been those detectives. Londonist editor-at-large Matt Brown, and co-author Rhys B Davies, have taken the concept to the entire planet in their Atlas of Imagined Places. With a deep love of trivia, he's written and hosted hundreds of quizzes, including events for the Museum of London and Manchester Science Museum, among many others. I also discovered a bounty of toys for any little girl or boy who wishes for a Christmas gift when I found the Isle of Mifsfit Toys. The book comes with a full guide to the many sources, with notes on how the locations were sleuthed.Matt Brown is author of 11 books for Batsford, using his trademark humour and playfulness as tools to explore the world. The maps feature fictional buildings, towns, cities and countries plus mountains and rivers, oceans and seas.