Ooh I love a map. I can spend ages looking through them, I think Google Maps is my most used app - hey I even spend money to subscribe to OS Maps (great content - frustating app).
So when I saw that the British Library was doing an exhibition called "Secret Maps," I was intrigued. I had a look and it looked really quite interesting. My dad also loves maps, so it was a little surprise extra Christmas present for him. We went up yesterday and I have to say, it was brilliant.
The idea behind it was to sort of showcase maps that have some form of secrecy behind them. It was a little bit tenuous at times; I think it was just a good excuse for the British Library to show some of the most tremendous maps that they've got. And frankly, they were tremendous. Right the way through from maps of the Middle Ages all the way through war maps, to the new sort of digital maps that are providing an incredible amount of information. Or using AI, for example, to find forests—which forests have been naturally grown and which are being deforested.
The "secret" side of it was interesting, particularly the war stuff. I particularly remember one of the maps—which I think I've got a photo of—that was printed on female lingerie. They were used to smuggle maps into places. Also, every airman or serviceman was given a hairbrush, and inside that hairbrush was a map of Continental Europe that they could use should they get caught. Which I thought was fantastic as well.
They showed some of the Russian maps that had been created of the UK, and it was just quite scary how detailed they were. There were maps that showed various different boundaries that weren't quite what they were supposed to be, hiding secrets and places of governmental importance, shall we say?
So overall, a fantastic day. Also, my dad and I were standing outside the British Library and we were musing over the fact that we went to a Sichuan restaurant many years ago together. So I had a look on my restaurant database and I noticed that the entry said something along the lines of "Marvellous Maps." It suddenly tweaked that, I think it was in 2013, I had taken my dad to a very similar exhibition at the British Library called "Marvellous Maps."
So, there we go. What goes around comes around. I guess in another 15 or 20 years' time, I'll be up at the British Library again—and equally, I’ve probably forgotten that I'd even been there before.