I know, I know… it's The Map Men. I've watched countless videos of them doing their wonderfully nerdy deep dives into the strangest corners of cartography on YouTube, and I've laughed every time. His humor is very specific and clever, but when I saw This Way Up, a beautiful, thick hardcover book that promises “geography, puzzles, and family fun,” I kept skipping it. Maybe because I felt like I already knew what I was going to get, or maybe I just felt intimidated by adding another book to my stack. What finally draws me to read the book is the cover.
But here's the thing: I was still drawn to it. It's the color, above all. It has a wonderful tactile feel, and the combination of the vibrant, almost retro-looking primary colors on the jacket immediately catches the eye. It manages to seem academic and completely fun at the same time, which, if you're a fan of Map Men videos, is essentially their brand distilled into a physical object. After several cycles of picking it up, flipping through it, and putting it down again, I finally admitted defeat and started reading.
And thank God I did, because this book is a triumph.
For those who haven't seen their videos, Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones, The Map Men, are essentially cartography nerds who use their platform to discover genuinely strange, hilarious, and sometimes frustrating stories hidden within maps and borders. His debut book, up hereHe translates that unique and witty perspective to the page flawlessly, which is a rare feat in YouTube-to-book transitions. This is not just a collection of facts; is a brilliantly entertaining collection of absolutely baffling essays, puzzles, and geographical oddities that will make you reconsider every time you look at an atlas. Richard Osman called it “educational, intelligent and fun,” and he's absolutely right. It's the kind of book that makes you laugh out loud and immediately want to share the absurd fact you just learned with whoever is closest.
Speaking of sharing, let me tell you about the morning I finally decided to take the photos for this post. It was pure chaos, the kind of morning that usually sends me straight back to bed. I was already ridiculously late for work, but I was determined to get that perfect cover photo. I ran out the door, only to realize that I hadn't eaten anything and was completely unprepared to face the workday on an empty stomach. So, I had to stop by McDonald's for breakfast – priorities, right? The Hot Chocolate and Egg McMuffin isn't healthy, but a girl has to eat it.
My partner was not happy that morning, bless him. While I was trying to get the hardcover book at the right angle in the less-than-ideal light of the car, complaining that the photos “weren't coming out as good,” he was much more focused on me getting to work on time. The soft, slightly frightened complaints from the passenger seat were the perfect soundtrack to my hasty amateur photography session. It's funny how life insists on getting in the way of even the simplest creative tasks.
But hey, here you have the photos, chaotic beginning and all. And I think that rush, that slight touch of “it's all too much,” actually reflects the content of the book perfectly. Because geography, as The Map Men demonstrate, is not neat and tidy; It's full of ridiculous human decisions, historical accidents, and utter disorder.
So what is the book really about?
This Way Up explores everything you never knew you needed to know about the world, structured around incredibly entertaining themes. You'll learn things like the strange history of time zones, the world's most useless borders (prepare to be blown away by the intricacies of the Baarle-Nassau/Baarle-Hertog border), and the incredible stories behind seemingly boring place names.
However, it's the anecdotes that really shine. The authors have a knack for finding the fun human element in dry government policies and old maps. For example, I was captivated by the absolute absurdity of some of the geopolitical disasters they describe: situations so illogical that they could not have been invented. It provides a kind of intellectual satisfaction, the feeling of understanding a massive, global inside joke. The book manages to be accessible enough for casual readers (it is officially recommended for “family fun”) while still offering enough depth to satisfy even the most die-hard geography buff.
If you are a lover of puzzles, general knowledge, or just fantastic storytelling, you should definitely read this book. It's an instant Sunday Times bestseller and Waterstones' best travel and nature writing book 2025 for a reason. He really lives up to Matt Lucas' praise because his unique and witty perspective translates brilliantly to the page.
Have you read This Way Up yet? If not, let me tell you why you should: It's the perfect antidote to boring nonfiction. It's educational without feeling like a chore, and it's so fun you'll forget you're learning.
If you're still not sure how to pick this up, let me stop you right there. This book is hilarious, and I'm not just saying that because I have a penchant for nerdy humor. Fun things are not made up; It's straight out of the archives of human incompetence, which, honestly, is the best kind of comedy.
Here are three of the stories that really made me laugh while reading:
You know how sometimes you're in IKEA and you're absolutely convinced that the instructions for the BILLY bookcase are written by someone with a personal grudge against you? Well, it turns out their cartographers are just as chaotic, but on a global scale.
The Map Men begins the book with the incredibly true story of a huge, shiny, decorative map of the world sold by IKEA. It was beautiful, but there was one huge, embarrassing problem: New Zealand just wasn't there. Missing. Missing. They just… forgot. I'm talking about a country the size of Britain, wiped off the face of the cartographic earth by a furniture retailer.
The sheer audacity of the mistake is funny enough, but The Map Men leans into the absurdity of it. It's not just IKEA! Apparently, cartographers have snubbed New Zealand so many times that it has become an internet meme. The book reminds you that maps are not just those infallible documents; They're made by humans who sometimes accidentally wipe out an entire nation because, well, it was probably a Friday afternoon. It makes you realize that when you look at a world map, there's a non-zero chance that some poor map intern has missed a landmass the size of a continent. Oh!
Forget the local pub drama – this story is about a border so incredibly messy it makes crossing the road seem complicated. This is the story of Baarle-Nassau and Baarle-Hertog, a single town where the border between the Netherlands and Belgium zigzags between houses, gardens and, yes, a pub.
The Map Men explain that this is not a clear, straight line. It is a complicated puzzle of small Belgian enclaves located within the Netherlands, sometimes containing even smaller Dutch counter-enclaves. It is a geographical beginning.
The most fun part is the practical consequences, especially for the people who run the establishments caught in the crossfire. There is a pub (The Map Men could say it is the café A La Frontière) where the official border runs right through the center of the dining room. In the past, if you were sitting on the Belgian side and the Dutch side had stricter closing times, the owner literally had to ask you to pick up your drink and move two feet to the Belgian side to finish your pint. Can you imagine? “Sorry mate, Holland is closing, move on to Belgium so you can keep drinking.” It's a perfect example of how seriously (and ridiculously) people take lines drawn on a map.
This story is one of my favorites because it shows that cartographers sometimes have a wonderful mean sense of humor. Before digital cartography, cartographers used to secretly add a completely false and non-existent place to their maps: a “paper city” or a “trap street.” They did this because if they ever found their map copied by a rival company, the fake city was proof of plagiarism. Smart, right?
But The Map Men shares the funny consequence of this trick. A small fictional town called Agloe was placed on a map in upstate New York. Decades later, another map company came along and seeing this little dot on the map decided it must be real, so they put it on their map too.
But here's the kicker: Finally, someone built a general store in that exact spot, and they literally called it Agloe General Store because they saw the name on the map. The fictitious place had become real due to the map error! The whole thing went from a made-up copyright trap to a genuine physical location. It's the ultimate 'life imitates art' moment, except the 'art' was just a grumpy cartographer trying to catch a thief. It perfectly shows how a simple, silly mistake can accidentally reshape reality.
Seriously, those are just three drops in the ocean of hilarious chaos on This Way Up.
Grab a copy, spin it every which way, and prepare to have your understanding of the world completely and hilariously changed.
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