Description

Archipelago: An Atlas of Imagined Islands

Islomania is a recognized affliction. But what is it about islands that is so alluring? And why do so many people find these self-contained worlds completely irresistible? Utopia and Atlantis were islands, and islands have captured the imaginations of writers and artists for centuries. 

In 1719 Daniel Defoe published his bestselling tale of a castaway on a desert island, Robinson Crusoe. Defoe’s tale combined the real and the imagined, establishing a whole literary genre and unleashing the power of an island for storytelling.

To celebrate the tercentenary of Robinson Crusoe’s publication, a range of leading illustrators imagine they too have been washed up on their own remote island. In each specially created map, they visualise its appearance, what it’s called and what can be found on its mythical shores. This book invites us to explore a curious and fabulous archipelago of islands of invention that will beguile illustrators, cartographers and dreamers alike.