Working with Map Projections: A Guide to Their Selection

even makes an appearance in some maps! Walker writes of their childhood together, occasional early career collaborations on lettering projects, and their starkly differing character, temperament and religious views. But Eric is very much a supporting role in his brother’s story, refreshingly and appropriately out of the limelight. This is Max’s time to shine. In 1933, a passionate love affair began with the much younger Priscilla Johnston. She was the daughter of Eric’s former teacher, Edward Johnston, who had become a life-long friend. ‘Priscilla awakened in him feelings that perhaps he had never experienced with any other woman. She came to dominate his thoughts, even creeping into the images he was creating.’ The ‘clandestine relationship’ and intellectual companionship quickly blossomed into a deep and enduring love, with Gill eventually leaving his wife to marry her in 1938. A novelist, Priscilla wrote eloquently in her letters and diaries about Gill’s working practices and their relationship, whichWalker weaves neatly into the narrative. This is where the book becomes as much a love story as a biography. A love story full of challenges, complexities, and many more maps! A skilled artist herself, the first commission Priscilla worked on with Max was a pictorial poster map of Ceylon. In the book’s introduction, Walker fondly recalls a copy of this poster hanging on the kitchen wall of her childhood home, decades later. She describes it as ‘a striking map filled with pictures of tea plantations, elephants and crocodiles, landmarks such as the great rock of Sigiriya, and a beautifully decorated compass’. Little did the besotted Max know in 1933, what a catalytic role this map would go on to play in the writing of his life’s story. Thirteen years in the making, Caroline Walker eloquently gives this remarkable man and his life’s work the critical attention it deserves. Credit where credit is long overdue. Those of us who know of Gill’s work are delighted that this day has finally come, and those who are yet to experience it are in for a treat. My advice is to buy this book now and spend a lifetime marvelling over every word and pixel.