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Geography is getting stranger. Out there fleets of new islands are under construction and eye-wateringly insane micro-nations are struggling into the light; unseen rivers are tumbling under sleeping cites and once secret fantasy-gardens are cracking open their doors. As groups like Islamic State fabricate proto-states whose boundaries ebb and flow with each passing day, it certainly feels as if all the old maps are being frantically scribbled over or torn up.

Alaistair Bonnet presents the stories of 43 of these extraordinary places, all of which will challenge the very concept of place. The ever more unruly maps of human and physical geography can seem overwhelming. Perhaps that´s why little places, the small secrets, the hidden surprises, have become so important. Alastair will set out on a journey across the world in search of a diverse range of modern utopias, from the Dubai Shopping Mall to the Findhorn eco-community in Scotland and Cybertopias such as Second Life.

Beyond the Map takes you to the world´s unruly places, the zones unmarked on any official map that are multiplying and changing fast and asks us to reexamine what the borders of state, place, home mean in today´s world.

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ALASTAIR BONNETT is Professor of Social Geography at Newcastle University. Previous books include Off the Map , What is Geography? and How to Argue . He has also contributed to history and current affairs magazines on a wide variety of topics, such as world population and radical nostalgia. Alastair was editor of the avant-garde, psychogeographical, magazine Transgressions: A Journal of Urban Exploration between 1994-2000. Alastair lives in Newcastle.

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