About Our Host
Meet the dynamic host of What's Your Map?, Prof. Jerry Brotton
I have always loved maps! Growing up as a kid in the North of England, I looked longingly at maps of the South of England, where I went on to spend most of my adult life. I have lived in South Africa, East Berlin, and yet call myself a Westerner; I have been all over the map, writing books and making television and radio programmes about them, yet always marvelling at their inexhaustible range: everyone has a map story to tell…
- Jerry Brotton
A huge map enthusiast, Jerry has been writing about history and cartography for more than twenty years.
Jerry is a Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary University in London. It was his background in historic literature that guided Jerry to maps, leading him to pursue a PhD in early modern mapping at Queen Mary University. He holds a BA (Hons) in English from Sussex University, an MA at Essex University in the Sociology of Literature (Essex University). His academic career also includes a research fellowship at Leeds University and a lectureship at Royal Holloway, London.
He is a multiple prize-winning, bestselling author whose books have been published in twenty-five languages. They include Trading Territories: Mapping the Early Modern World (1997), A History of the World in Twelve Maps (2012), Great Maps: The World's Masterpieces Explored and Explained (2014), and This Orient Isle: Elizabethan England and the Islamic World (Penguin, 2016).
Jerry’s latest book is The Four Points of the Compass: the Unexpected History of Direction (Penguin, 2024).
Jerry has presented over a dozen television and radio series about history, including Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession (BBC4), ‘Blood and Bronze’ (BBC Radio 3), ‘One Direction’ (BBC Radio 4), and ‘We Other Tudors’ (BBC Radio 3). His most recent ten-part series explores the life and work of the Elizabethan playwright Christopher ‘Kit’ Marlowe (BBC Radio 4).
He has also curated exhibitions including ‘Penelope’s Labour: Weaving Words and Images’ (Venice Biennale, 2011), ‘Talking Maps’ (Bodleian Library, Oxford, 2019-2020). Most recently, Jerry co-curated 'Secret Maps' (British Library, 2025). Jerry's next exhibition will be ‘We Other Tudors’ at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, scheduled for 2027-28.
In all the conversations with our guests, we will find out about the maps they love but also about themselves and what makes them tick. What is it about maps that is so entrancing? It is a question I have been asking myself for nearly three decades. ‘What's your Map?’ is an exciting new way to talk about maps and bring them to an even wider audience. I hope as you listen you might ask yourself: what is my map?
On WHAT'S YOUR MAP? Jerry meets a wide range of people from different disciplines and life experiences, who bring him a map that has somehow inspired them. Each guest shares their varied perspectives in a series of lively and unexpected discussions, taking listeners on a fun and highly eclectic journey of discovery.
In Autumn 2025, WHAT'S YOUR MAP? was awarded Gold for Education at the British Podcast Awards 2025, and Jerry won Bronze at The Audio Producers Association Awards 2025, in the Best Presenter category sponsored by Everybody Media.
Jerry hosting a special live episode of WHAT’S YOUR MAP? Live at Hay Festival 2026 with guests Tim Marshall, Emma Jane Unsworth and David Olusoga ©Sam Hardwick | Hay Festival.
Maps are magical objects that can inform who you are, from wherever you are; they can get you from A to B, from this world to the next; they can guide writers in plotting their stories, and artists who use them to show that any image of the world is always partial.
Like Jerry, The Sunderland Collection recognises the deep connection between literature and cartography. We celebrate this through sister collection, Ex Carta - a curation of literary and world building maps from internationally iconic stories and lore. Find out more using the link below - more exciting information coming soon!
