About Our Host
Jerry Brotton is an writer, historian, broadcaster, and curator.
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…
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.
In ‘What’s Your Map?’ I draw on a lifetime of using, studying, writing about and learning from maps from every continent and culture, talking to people who make them, use them and love them, Whether they are writers, artists, scientists, travellers - or just people who are fascinated by the power of maps. I will introduce maps from the past and the present, even the future. Maps of ancient worlds, new worlds, and worlds we are still exploring, deep in the oceans, and the universe!
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?
About Jerry Brotton
A huge map enthusiast, Jerry has been writing about history and cartography for more than twenty years. 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).
The Four Points of the Compass: the Unexpected History of Direction (Penguin Press, 2024)
Jerry's latest book is The Four Points of the Compass: the Unexpected History of Direction (Penguin Press, 2024). This fascinating work explores the human construct of direction, and its impact on the imaginative, moral and political geography of world cultures.
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).
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.
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.
