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Maps of My Life, Guy Browning

Guy Browning loves maps and each chapter of Maps of My life is prefaced by a map. Some of these are real maps of exotic places, with hilarious annotations. For example, Thor Heyerdahl figures in many of them, usually ‘unable to admit a navigational mistake here’.

Others are mind maps. We see a map of Guy Browning’s ego as it was systematically reduced by a ‘North Oxford Girl’. We see his mother’s mental map of the Isle of Wight which places it convincingly somewhere between New Zealand and the Indian Ocean.

The text is ‘laugh-out-loud-funny’ as we follow Guy Browning from his early childhood in Botley to young adulthood. He is almost invariably accompanied by his brother, the ‘Fatted Calf’ who succeeds in all his ventures, while Guy Browning is self-deprecating and frequently fails.

Guy’s father is an Oxford don who believes in subjecting his family to long marches. Gentle fun is poked at his inability to acquire a real car for the family or to give house-room to a television set once the boys have reached secondary school age. Each of these situations, and dozens more, is the source of a humorous anecdote, as the family moves around the world on sabbaticals or holiday trips.

This is a delightful comic read by a very amusing writer. Guy Browning also writes for the Guardian.

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