Book number eight in the 26-books-in-52-weeks challenge has to be a book by someone who isn’t a writer. It was a bit of a tricky category for me. After all, how can you produce a book without being a writer? But after looking through my book shelves I came to my collection of reference books. And beside my various dictionaries and thesauruses, there it was, my Philip’s Essential World Atlas.

I love maps – and by maps I mean ‘old school’ paper charts. Google maps and sat navs are all very well and yes, they’re useful when driving, but you can’t beat the real thing for really getting yourself orientated.

I have no sense of direction whatsoever and get lost very easily so to be able to spread out a proper, paper map and learn by heart where one place is in relation to another place is invaluable for me.

Nowadays, I have a large collection of Ordinance Survey maps for when I’m out on long walks but my love affair with maps began when I was a child. When I was around seven-years-old, I had a world map on my bedroom wall complete with all the flags of the world printed around the edge. I was fascinated by it and memorised as many flags and capital cities as I could. It was also around that time that I got my first atlases – a UK one and a world one – and oh how I pored over them.

And my fascination has continued until now. So my book number eight is not by a writer but by a cartographer. I’ve had my Philip’s Essential World Atlas for many years now so it’s probably high time I updated and got a newer edition. Boundaries and country names will have changed over the years. And of course what fun it would be to have a new collection of maps to get metaphorically lost in.

What book not written by a writer would you choose I wonder?