The Road to There: Mapmakers and Their Stories

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University. She is the author of several books, including The
Mountain Is Moving: Japanese Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret
Laurence: The Long Journey Home.

To the astonishment of those who consider science to be the guiding star
of modern mapmakers, Val Ross demonstrates that all mapmaking, even the
most scientific, involves a considerable degree of imagination. Maps
give names to mysterious regions. They create the sense that there are
clear routes, even in outer space. This is why Val Ross finds mapmaking
“another way that we can tell stories.” What a novel and liberating
way of describing cartography.

Ross is an award-winning journalist and deputy comment editor at The
Globe and Mail. No professional scholar could have bettered the text of
The Road to There, which is aimed at curious readers of all ages.

The attractive format uses many information boxes with small coloured
illustrations. These include photographs of stamps, historic engravings,
antique maps, NASA photographs, handmade surveys, and mini-biographies.
The personal introduction, entitled “Inventing the Road to There,”
credits the mediaeval-looking maps in C.S. Lewis’s Narnia series of
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as the origin of Ross’s idea for
drawing maps of her own private worlds.

The Road to There is an unusual and impressive book that is chock full
of surprises and delights. It is not a book to consume in an evening,
but one to read in bits while taking time for reflection. Chapter titles
include “The Undersea Mapmakers,” “The Mapmaker’s Beliefs:
Gerard Mercator,” “The Mapmaker’s Disguise: Secret Maps,” and
“The Mapmakers’ Eyes: Mapping from Above.” Ross’s imagination
and solid research prove to be excellent partners. Highly recommended.