book

Meeting the Map Men in Leeds

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Mark Cooper-Jones and Jay Foreman, aka the Map Men, in front of a crowd at Waterstones in Leeds

Last week, I went to meet the Map Men at Waterstones in Leeds. They have a new book out, called This Way Up, which you can buy from Waterstones or Amazon (sponsored link).

The Map Men are Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones. They’re both stand-up comedians, and Mark used to be a geography teacher before going into comedy, hence the interest in maps. Jay, meanwhile, has long had a YouTube channel; I first came across his ‘Unfinished London‘ series many years ago. Mark and Jay started collaborating on their Map Men series way back in 2016, with a video about Bir Tawil:

The show started out primarily as a sketch show that happened to be mostly factual. This became an issue when Mark and Jay found out that teachers were using their videos in classes at school, and so newer episodes undergo rather more fact-checking before they’re published. In all, there’s been 34 episodes across four series, with each episode typically getting 3-4 million views. They’re good – they manage to be entertaining whilst also educational.

The Map Men Book

Every successful thing seems to result in a book nowadays, and so ‘This Way Up’ is their first book inspired by the show. It’s worth noting that it’s all new content – essentially, lots of the content in the book are things that are interesting, but would probably not make a good video. That also means that the book isn’t treading the same ground as the videos.

Here’s a couple of interesting points that I picked up from the book launch. Firstly, the first draft of the book was almost finished, when Mark and Jay realised that there was nothing about the UK in the book. So those chapters were some of the last to be added.

The second was about whether Yorkshire appears, seeing as the event was in Leeds. The answer is yes, but not a whole chapter. It comes up in a chapter about ITV regions, and how the area covered by Yorkshire Television included a lot of places which were emphatically not in Yorkshire, and didn’t cover many that actually were. For example, King’s Lynn, all the way down in Norfolk, picked up Yorkshire Television, but Scarborough, further up the coast and very much in Yorkshire, did not. The broadcast area also included the tiny county of Rutland, and thus merits a mention of Eric Idle’s sketch show Rutland Weekend Television.

A photo of me (on the left) with Mark and Jay (the Map Men) and my friend Phil

Book launch

This Way Up was released last week, and so I attended one of the five launch events being held in various branches of Waterstones across the UK. Of those five, three sold out; this one in Leeds wasn’t quite a sell-out, but around 200 people gave up time on their Tuesday evening to see the Map Men speak. I turned up slightly late, thanks to Northern Rail, but managed to see almost all of their hour-long Q&A session.

Of course, the best thing about attending a book launch is the opportunity to meet the authors, which we did after the Q&A. So, I have a lovely photo of me with Mark and Jay, and my friend Philip Lickley, and a signed copy of the book. Incidentally, neither Phil nor I knew each other would be there ahead of time (despite me saying so on Facebook – curse you, algorithms!) and yet we ended up sat next to each other.

As I write this, I haven’t yet read the book, apart from the short passages that were read out at the event. I have, however, separately picked up the audiobook, which Mark and Jay narrate themselves, and will listen to it soon.

What was your first Amazon purchase?

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Inspired by @mikko I just looked at my first ever Amazon order and: yup, that’s 14-year-old me. pic.twitter.com/cAuNzAoKAj

— Alex Hern (@alexhern) July 4, 2017

I saw this tweet on Tuesday about your first Amazon purchase. Amazon, of course, remembers your order history going back to when you first registered an account.

My first purchase was in May 2003, a few days before my 19th birthday. I actually blogged about it at the time. I bought Just for Fun (sponsored link) by Linus Torvalds, the memoirs of the creator of the Linux operating system. Although I wasn’t, and still am not, a great reader of books, I did actually read this book – it kept me occupied whilst on holiday with my parents over the summer. I remember a few things from the book, but not much.

The rest of my purchases from 2003 were a couple of textbooks that I needed for my undergraduate degree course in Computer Science. One was about TCP/IP networking, and the other on software engineering. I’m sure they’re significantly out of date now. Oh, and I bought Shrek on DVD (sponsored link).

So what was your first Amazon purchase?

Listening to books, part V (Fiction edition)

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It’s time for another update on the audiobooks that I’ve been listening to. As mentioned last time, I’ve been listening to a few fiction books lately, rather than just yet more celebrity memoirs. As someone who hasn’t read (or indeed listened to) fiction in many years, this was a bit of a departure for me. Indeed, Mitch Benn’s book Terra was the first in a long time.

Here’s what I’ve listened to:

Battlemage by Stephen Aryan

The cover of Battlemage by Stephen Aryan

I’ll disclose a minor conflict of interest here: I used to work with Stephen’s partner. At the time, I remember hearing about how he was struggling to get a publisher. This was when self-publishing on Kindle and the like was becoming more popular. I’m pleased to see that Stephen’s persistence paid off, with this book being published by Orbit in September 2015. It’s available as an actual paperbook in real shops (or Amazon – sponsored link), and an audiobook on Audible.

Battlemage is among the longer books that I’ve listened to – roughly on a par with a typical Game of Thrones book. It tells the story of several battlemages, powerful and feared wizards, who are recruited to fight in a war against the ‘warlock’. It’s firmly in the ‘sword and sorcery’ subgenre of fantasy.

I really enjoyed this book; whilst I chose it principally to support someone I know, the story was good and the characters had depth. The narration by Mark Addis on the audiobook is good as well. It’s the first in a trilogy, and I’m looking forward to listening to Bloodmage, the next book in the series.

Dietland by Sarai Walker

I listened to this book on a recommendation from Sofie Hagen, formerly one half of The Guilty Feminist podcast. I didn’t really know what to expect, other than that it would likely criticise the diet industry.

Dietland (Amazon link – sponsored) tells the story of Plum, a fat girl who doesn’t want to be fat. She signs up for a weight loss scheme called ‘The Baptist Plan’, but is left looking for other options when the company is closed by its founder’s daughter. Considering bariatric surgery, she’s recruited into a secretive collective and finds out the truth about dieting.

The reviews of this book are mixed, perhaps due to its controversial second half where the story takes an interesting twist. For me, I found the second half much stronger than the first. Initially I almost wrote this book off as being typical cheap ‘chick lit’, but I stuck with it and was rewarded. Drawing parallels with real-life events, it’s hilarious and empowering.

Lauren Henderson narrates the book, and whilst she does so well, she wouldn’t be my favourite voice actor.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

I listened to The Alchemist (Amazon link – sponsored) because it was available as a freebie on Audible back in November. I had run out of credits, didn’t fancy paying full price for another audiobook and saw that it was a relatively short 4 hour listen, which I completed in a week thanks to a few long car journeys.

It’s certainly not the sort of book that I would normally listen to, and it was okay, I guess. The story follows a young Spanish shepherd, as he travels to Africa to find treasure. The revelations he has on his journey end up changing the course of his life.

There’s a lot of religious imagery in the book, even if it isn’t overtly Christian. The narration was good, but you can tell that it has been translated into English. There’s not the level of nuance that I expect it would have if read in its original Portuguese.

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

The cover of Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

As a child, I read a few Terry Pratchett books – namely the Johnny Maxwell trilogy, but as yet I haven’t dabbled my toe into any of Pratchett’s books for adults. Similarly, I’ve not really read any Neil Gaiman books apart from a couple of short stories. So I thought that Good Omens (Amazon link – sponsored), a collaboration between the two of them, would be a good introduction to both authors. It’s a standalone book that is not part of any wider series.

Good Omens follows Crowley and Aziraphale, a demon and an angel who live on Earth, and who aren’t very happy about its imminent destruction. As the four horsemen of the apocalypse gather, and the anti-christ goes missing, it’s up to them to save the world, with the help of a surprisingly accurate book of prophecies written by one Agnes Nutter.

There are some laugh-out-loud moments in Good Omens, especially in its comments about the M25, and how every cassette that spends more than a couple of weeks in a car becomes songs by Queen. Some of the pop culture references are a little dated – this book was first published in 1990 – but on the whole, it holds up well. Stephen Briggs offers an excellent narration in the audiobook.

Update (May 2025): This was written before the allegations about Neil Gaiman’s sexual abuse were made public. Also, the original Stephen Briggs audiobook has been replaced with a newer recording narrated by Martin Jarvis.

Up next

At present I’m back to celebrity memoirs, but will be listening to more fiction books in future. I’m considering making a start on Game of Thrones, and perhaps making inroads into Terry Pratchett’s Discworld universe.

Listening to books, part IV

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It’s time for another update on the audiobooks that I’ve been listening to, this time since December.

Bossypants

Continuing my trend for listening to memoirs by female comedians, I spent December listening to Bossypants by Tina Fey (Amazon link – sponsored). Fey is a comedian and actress for whom I’m broadly familiar with – particularly her Sarah Palin impressions. Alas, having not watched 30 Rock, I missed some of the references in the book. This perhaps ruined my enjoyment of it slightly.

Fey’s advice on improvisation is something that has stuck with me – the ‘Yes, and…’ response when asked a question. It’s a key part of keeping improv sketches moving, but can be applied to many other situations too.

The book is now six years old and it sort-of shows. But it’s enjoyable and I recommend it.

Where am I now?

Growing up, I was a fan of Roald Dahl’s books, and enjoyed Danny DeVito’s film adaption of Matilda. The starring role in that film was Mara Wilson, and Where am I now? (Amazon link – sponsored) is her story.

Mara isn’t so well-known nowadays. As a child actor, she was in a string of well-known films, but she wasn’t able to continue this fame into adulthood. The book covers how she never quite fitted in, her battles with mental health and her sometimes difficult family life. It’s a charming book that will take you through many emotions, both happy and sad.

After listening, I bought this book as a Christmas present for Christine, as many of Wilson’s life experiences mirrored hers. That, and it’s a book that I really enjoyed.

Be Awesome: Modern Life for Modern Ladies

I’m not a lady, but this book by Guardian journalist Hadley Freeman was recommended to me. Be Awesome: Modern Life for Modern Ladies (Amazon link – sponsored) is part-memoir, part advice column, and partly an opportunity to rant about patriarchal oppression and the rubbish that modern women have to put up with.

Freeman’s wit livens up a book that I’d otherwise have stopped listening to partway through. Again, a lack of familiarity with the many TV series that Freeman references in the book made it hard to follow in places. And like her columns, this is a very light-hearted read that shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

As with Lindy West’s audiobook Shrill that I reviewed last time, Freeman isn’t the best person to speak her own work. This is especially noticeable at the beginning when her performance isn’t great. Again, I put this down to Freeman (and West) being journalists rather than actors and performers.

Update (May 2025): I wouldn’t now recommend this book due to Freeman’s transphobic views.

Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions

Making computer algorithms both interesting and relevant to the wider public is a hard task, but this book does it well Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions (Amazon link – sponsored) is by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths, and Christian himself reads the audiobook. It takes the concepts of various common algorithms and shows how these can be applied to real life. The collision detection algorithms used in computer networking are a good example. We use the concept naturally when talking in a group, to ensure that we don’t speak over others.

Because computers follow every instruction explicitly, the book shows how actions that we humans take for granted have to be unpacked for a computer, and how we can learn from this process.

Some of the concepts can be a little hard to get your head around, and having a background in computer science definitely helped me. Whilst it’s not your typical self-improvement book, I picked up a few tips for dealing with real life situations based on this book’s concepts.

In addition to these books, I’ve been listening to some fiction books, which I’ll write about later. Next up, is Steve Coogan’s Easily Distracted.

Going into print

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The cover of the book 'Hacking Movable Type'

If you read Ben Hammersley and Jay Allen, you may have seen references to “the book” recently. This is Hacking Movable Type (sponsored link), a 500+ page guide to getting deep down and dirty with MT and customising it to the extreme. And now I think it’s time to let you know that I’m writing a couple of chapters for it.

It’s very much a group effort – as well as myself, Jay and Ben, there are contributions from Matt Haughey, Brad Choate and David Raynes amongst others, and the foreword to the book is being written by Ben and Mena Trott themselves. As arguably the least known of any of those, I’m naturally flattered to be involved in such a project.

The book is still very much a work in progress but will be out later this year. I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, if you want to pre-order it, the ISBN is 076457499X and the publisher is John Wiley & Sons.