Tuesday 8 May 2012

Birlinn is delighted to announce that Professor Charles Withers, one of the authors of Scotland: Mapping the Nation, has been awarded the Founder's Medal for 2012 of the Royal Geographical Society. The Founder’s Medal is a Royal Medal approved by the Queen, for the encouragement and development of historical and cultural geography, and counts Sir David Attenborough and Sir Ranulph Fiennes amongst previous winners. Charles is Professor of Historical Geography at the University of Edinburgh, and a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal Historical Society, and the Royal Society of Arts.

With his coauthors Christopher Fleet and Margaret Wilkes, Charles created one of the most popular titles published by Birlinn last year, Scotland Mapping the Nation. The book, described by the Times Educational Supplement as ‘elegantly written, thoroughly referenced and exquisitely presented’, tells the history of Scotland from the innovative perspective of maps and map-making.

Congratulations Charles, from everyone at Birlinn!