Sometimes there’s nothing better than opening a new novel and seeing the world spread out over the first few pages.

Maps to show people the shape of the world you’ve created are a staple of many a fantasy novel. This month, we asked our resident expert on maps, Russell Kirkpatrick, to bring you something a little different and share his vast cartographic and geographic experience with you. Russell is the author of the hugely popular Fire of Heaven and Husk trilogies, and also a geography lecturer and cartographer (https://russellkirkpatrick.wordpress.com/about/). He’s even published six major atlases. It doesn’t need saying, but you know I’ll say it anyway: if you have any questions about maps in books and how to create realistic geography, come along and listen to Russell speak.

The calendar has the details on where and when we meet.