Authors
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John Davies (left) is a life-long map collector and enthusiast. He encountered Soviet mapping whilst working in Latvia in early 2000s. Since retiring from a career in Information Systems he has been writing and lecturing about these maps and was until recently editor of Sheetlines, the Journal of The Charles Close Society for the Study of Ordnance Survey Maps. He lives in London and runs the website Sovietmaps.com
Soviet maps have fascinated Alex Kent since he first encountered them on a trekking holiday in Kazakhstan in 2001. With a life-long enthusiasm for maps, he has undertaken award-winning research into the design and aesthetics of topographic mapping and is the immediate past President of the British Cartographic Society. Alex shares his passion for cartography with students at Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK, where he is Reader in Cartography and Geographical Information Science. He is also well known in the international cartographic community as Editor of The Cartographic Journal, as Chair of the International Cartographic Association (ICA) Commission on Topographic Mapping, and for presenting his research on Soviet maps at conferences around the world.
Click here to watch 'Cold War Cartography' , talk by Alex and John at Pushkin House, London on 18 January 2023 (approx 54 minutes)
Click here to listen to a podcast of John and Alex discussing Soviet mapping during a visit to National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) in Washington DC in October 2016 (left). (approx 20 minutes)
Click here to view extract from BBC-TV The One Show of May 2010 with John filmed at the former Royal Naval Dockyard at Chatham (MP4 file, approx 5 minutes)