Nicholas Crane

Nicholas Crane is an author, geographer, cartographic expert and 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. Between 2015 and 2018, Nick was the elected President of the Royal Geographical Society.

Nick has presented many acclaimed TV series’ on BBC2, among them Map Man, Great British Journeys, Town, Britannia and Coast. He has been the lead presenter on more than 80 BBC films.

Nick’s books include Clear Waters Rising: A Mountain Walk Across Europe (Penguin, 1996), which describes his solo, 10,000-kilometre walk along the continent’s mountain watershed and was called ‘One of the liveliest and most enthralling travel books I have read for years’ by Miranda Seymour in the Sunday Times. Two Degrees West: An English Journey (Viking, 1999), described as ‘An elegant and moving snapshot of England, a beautifully written book…very funny’ by The Times, is the account of a walk from one end to the other of England, following the prime meridian. The cartographic bestseller, Mercator: The Man Who Mapped the Planet (Orion, 2002), was praised by the great Lisa Jardine as ‘A gripping and densely informative biography’. Published in 2016, The Making of the British Landscape from the Ice Age to the Present (W&N, 2016), was described by The Times as ‘Storytelling at its best’ and by the Guardian as ‘Ambitious, magnificent’. You Are Here, A Brief Guide to the World (W&N, 2018), was celebrated in the New Statesman as ‘a lifetime of thought and travel … a hymn to geography.’ Latitude (Penguin) was published by Michael Joseph in 2021 and described in the Spectator as ‘terrific’.

Photo courtesy of Peter Eason