Nicholas Crane

"We all have a world view. It is one of the things that makes us human. Wherever we come from, whoever we are, we all have to engage with people, places and our environment. Geography is a way of thinking."

In You Are Here: A Brief Guide to the World, Nicholas Crane explores how one word binds us all: geography. We are all geographers, human beings who care about the places we think of as 'home' - our habitat. And yet we have lost touch with the connection between our actions and the state of the planet that we all share. We need a new narrative that restores the connections between humanity and the Earth.

We are being confronted by a daily barrage of geographical stories on climate change, geopolitics, population growth, migration, dwindling resources, polluted oceans and environmental hazards ranging from flooding to extreme heatwaves. These are planetary concerns affecting all people and all places. They are challenges that have to be addressed through policies based on geographical science.

In this distillation of a lifetime's work, Nicholas Crane makes the compelling case that geography has never been so important. On this finite orb, with its battered habitat, sustained in dark space by a thin, life-giving atmosphere, we have reached a point in our collective geographical journey where knowledge is the best guarantor of the future

Nicholas Crane is an author, geographer, cartographic expert and a recipient of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s Mungo Park Medal in recognition of outstanding contributions to geographical knowledge, and of the Royal Geographical Society’s Ness Award for popularising geography and the understanding of Britain. His previous titles include The Making of the British Landscape, Coast: Our Island Story and A Mountain Walk Across Europe, which won the 1997 Thomas Cook / Daily Telegraph Travel Book Award. In recent years, Nick has become best known for his TV work, presenting five BBC2 series: Coast, Map Man, Great British Journeys, Nicholas Crane’s Britannia and Town.

"You Are Here is destined to become a classic ... a meticulously researched distillation of the geography and history of our planet" Nigel Winser, Geographical Magazine

"A magnificent, epic work by a national treasure." Daily Mail on The Making of the British Landscape

This event is part of the Climate Change & the Environment - Futures strand of programming.

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