This was a really engaging and interesting book. The stories of imaginary islands were my favorite as opposed to the sunken or simply misplaced ones. The accompanying illustrations are spectacular ( )

Deserts have been known for mirages for millennia; the oasis that appears in the distance offering shade and water that as approached vanishes. Strangely enough, the same happens at sea, islands are glimpsed through fog and rough seas, navigation errors mean that sailors find places that exist elsewhere and others are purely figments of imagination. In this high quality book, Tallack has bought together the myths and legends of two dozen islands that were thought to exist, and now no longer do.

There are sections on sunken islands, un-discovered islands and mythical islands. Some are well known, Atlantis probably and the Isles of the Blessed being the some of them. Others are obscure and unheard of, until now. There are two or three pages of stories and background on each island, with some speculation as to the why’s and wherefores of their appearance and disappearance. Throughout the book are the delightful and colourful illustrations by Katie Scott; they add so much to the narrative of the book.

It is ideal for map and geography lovers and is a beautiful produced book too. Sadly there doesn’t seem to be much depth to the stories. It is not the fault of Tallack, but it is understandable when you remember that these are places that have no basis in reality, the tangible facts are scarce. ( )

I was excited to read this new publication as it's such a neat premise: a history of islands that were once thought to exist, but whose origins have proven mythical, due to navigational or cartographic errors, or wishful thinking. Incredibly, some of these islands have been removed from maps only within the last decade. Though boasting an attractive cover and internal artwork, the book would have been further enhanced by images of some of the erroneous maps showing the islands in question. I also couldn't help but wonder: Many islands have become "un-discovered" with the advent of satellites, but has the reverse occurred? Has satellite technology discovered any islands in a remote part of the world that no humans had encountered previously? ( )

A coffee table style book telling the stories twenty-four islands (or island groups) that have been "un-discovered"; that is, have been believed to be real, only to eventually be expunged from the charts as non-existent. Some originate in myth or literature, some in scientific speculation, some as deliberate frauds; most simply as navigational errors or as misidentifications of icebergs or fog banks.

The book is, as is appropriate for a coffee table book, illustrated, but, disappointingly, none of the illustrations are of old maps or charts actually showing the islands as if real. Instead we're treaded to fairly bland paintings of various objects - animals, tools, ships - appropriate to the stories of the islands.

Having read various other works on ex-isles (to use Tallack's charming designation) - as the best I would recommend Stommel's Lost Islands - this one didn't tell me very much new, but perhaps surprisingly the odd phantom island is still disappearing from the charts in the 21st century, meaning this one mentions a couple that were still thought to be real when those books were written.