Matt Brown is author of 11 books for Batsford, using his trademark humour and playfulness as tools to explore the world. Matt Brown's idea for the book was directly inspired by a similar map of fictional places in Britain that he created for Londonist. Matt has been a great supporter of my work over the years and has written regularly about my map designs for Londonist. Characters' homes, bars, clubs, metro stations and skycrapers that you've seen or read about are all plotted in in beautiful vintage-style city maps. Clockwise from top left: Gulliver and a giant bee in Brobdingnag and with a Houyhnhnm (talking horse) from Gulliver's Travels; the Grand Budapest Hotel from the movie of the same name; Godzilla or Gojira; yellow periscopes that represent The Yellow Submarine; floating plastic waste that references the island in Plastic Beach, the album by Gorillaz; the whale attacking the crew of the Pequod in Moby-Dick; and the main characters from the classical Chinese tale Journey to the West.

The full design for the map of the United States, which is divided into three sections (east, central and west) for the book. From the Ghostbusters HQ in New York to Nemo’s fish tank in Sydney, from the Phantom of the Opera’s Parisian lair to scenes from Grand Theft Auto in LA, this is an amazing atlas of imaginary locations in real-life cities around the world.NOTE: I received a hardback copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest, unbiased review. This map includes locations from two animated movie franchises: the kingdom of Arendelle from Disney's Frozen and the Barbaric Archipelago from How To Train Your Dragon. 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. The 14 cities covered are Berlin, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York City, Paris, Rio, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Venice and Washington DC.

Each map is enlivened by small colour illustrations, depicting characters and scenes from various sources featured on each map.The Central America map contains hundreds of places, from Pirates of the Caribbean to Jurassic Park, with cameos from James Bond, Captain Pugwash, Robinson Crusoe and From Dawn to Dusk. Detail from the map of Eastern Europe, including a large section of European Russia and the Baltics.

Often, it's obvious from the source material, but sometimes a bit of detective-work is needed to pinpoint a fictional home, business or event. The maps feature fictional buildings, towns, cities and countries plus mountains and rivers, oceans and seas. Accompanying the maps are illuminating essays that explain how the authors came to their decisions, along with explorations of the key locations and fun timelines of imaginary events.You'll also find the routes of fictional car chases, speedboat pursuits in Venice, the pilgrimage path of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and much more. Combining pop culture with map enthusiasm, 'The Atlas of Imagined Places: from Liliput to Gotham City' is published by Pavilion Books and written by Matt Brown and Rhys B.