The Ordnance Survey Puzzle Book: Pit your wits against Britain’s greatest map makers

by Gareth Moore

Are YOU the ultimate map-reader? Do you know your trig points from your National Trails? Can you calculate using contours? And can you fathom exactly how far the footpath is from the free house?

Track down hidden treasures, decipher geographical details and discover amazing facts as you work through this unique puzzle book based on 40 of the Ordnance Survey's best British maps. Explore the first ever OS map made in 1801, unearth the history of curious place names, encounter abandoned Medieval villages and search the site of the first tarmac road in the world. With hundreds of puzzles ranging from easy to mind-boggling, this mix of navigational tests, word games, code-crackers, anagrams and mathematical conundrums will put your friends and family through their paces on the path to becoming the ultimate map-master!

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Geography, Travel, Puzzles

240 pages, Paperback

Published October 29, 2019

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an excellent book! Needless to say, it's full of OS map extracts. The puzzles are fun and it's packed with interesting facts about OS maps and the areas chosen for the book.

OS map fans will spend hours looking at it.

[Danny Withington · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting book that you can pull out at anytime. The background information to the maps and the Ordnance Survey facts are brilliant, my only criticism is that the questions often have very little to do with mapping and the 'cryptic crossword nature' of the questions becomes repetitive after a while.

[Colin Thompson]

a little bit of quarantine fun to pass the time until I can get out walking again.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some great maps here, but after a while or the puzzles become a bit repetitive.

[Roger Woods · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book of puzzles based on 40 OS maps of different kinds rated from easy to challenging; the latter are quite difficult. Along the way you also learn something of the history of the Ordnance Survey and the type of maps they have produced.

[Darren · Rating 1 out of 5]

I looked at the first quiz then flicked through the book to see if the other quizzes were the same. They were.
In a puzzle book from the OS I was expecting geography puzzles/questions not how many adjectives are there on this map? Which place name if you have a warped brain could also mean...?
Worst money I’ve ever spent on anything.

[Nick Swarbrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished for now - but this is a puzzle book with different levels all represented on each map, and when I get it back from one of my daughters I will come back to the more complex questions, which mix map reading and geography with historical and other cultural lines of enquiry. A great book for a commute? I’m looking forward to it!

[Chris Shepheard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great idea with brilliant maps showing some of the OS history with interesting text about them. Sadly let down by the repetitive nature of the puzzles and the lack of connection with map reading (the focus is more on cryptic crossword questions).

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Background to maps interesting; puzzles themselves rather less so.

[Jackie O'sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

some really great puzzles

[Tyrone · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the Christmas bestsellers. Nice accessible quizzes. Some great OS info to boot.
The quizzes are somewhat repetitive and this is not for the hardcore map afficianado.

[JoJo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a bit of a map geek so this book was an excellent diversion over Christmas. Full of little vignettes of mapping with questions rising in level for each map. Lovely.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent information on the OS history along with some interesting facts about places in the UK you'd never otherwise know. The puzzles themselves are not so good if you need strong reading glasses!

[Nicola Byrne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had some fun with this but was expecting more navigation challenges. It has a lot of searching for words and pictures. Overall ok though.

[Richard Hurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great fun and informative.

[David Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good fun book with lots of quiz questions relating to the map extract. Be a great resource to improve the way you look at maps, and also to understand what the maps are telling us.