A truly magical and engrossing journey across Switzerland's history A map is the perfect pictorial way to explain and entertain. This book achieves both of these goals and provide a detailed picture of Switzerland. Diccon Bewes' search for original maps led him through official archives and private collections. The results are presented here, along with the fascinating stories behind them: from the circular island map of 1480 to the birth of modern Swiss cartography; from the British rail plan for Switzerland to a Soviet map of Basel during the Cold-War; from the 1970s Zurich map for men to the vision of a Greater Switzerland with 40 cantons. Map by map, we understand how Switzerland came to be and possibly where it is going. A truly magical and engrossing journey. Diccon Bewes is the most Swiss of all Englishmen. Before becoming a best-selling author, he worked as a travel journalist in London and as a bookseller in Bern.