The Globemakers

Author Peter Bellerby
Narrator Simon Ludders
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
Publish Date 1 January 1970
Run Time 4 hours and 16 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Antiques, vintage and collectables: instruments, implements and tools, Cartography, map-making and projections, The Arts, The arts: general issues.

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents The Globemakers by Peter Bellerby, read by Simon Ludders.

“Beautifully conceived and skillfully executed . . . encourages the reader to linger and explore." —The Wall Street Journal

“Peter Bellerby’s tale of learning how to fashion worlds—a journey through history, science, craft, and passion—spun me on my axis.” —Dava Sobel, New York Times bestselling author of Longitude

The story of our globe and the globes it has inspired, told from inside the workshop of one of the world’s last globemakers.

Many of us encounter a globe as children. We find a grown-up and ask, “Where are we?” They spin the globe and point to a minuscule dot amidst a massive expanse of sea and land. Thousands of questions follow. A profound convergence of art and science, a globe is the ultimate visualization of our place in our galaxy and universe. To be a globemaker requires a knowledge of geography, skilled engineering, drawing, and painting, and only a few people in history have ever really mastered the craft.

When Peter Bellerby set out to make a globe for his father's eightieth birthday, after failing to find a suitable one to purchase, he had no idea where the process would lead. He went on to establish Bellerby & Co, one of the only artisan globemakers in the world. The Globemakers brings us inside Bellerby’s gorgeous studio to learn how he and his team of cartographers and artists bring these stunning celestial, terrestrial, and planetary objects to life. Along the way he tells stories of his adventure and the luck along the way that shaped the company.

The Globemakers is an enlightening exploration of globes, or “earth apples,” as they were first known, and their ability to show us ourselves and our place in an infinite universe.

Critics Review

Beautifully conceived and skillfully executed . . . encourages the reader to linger and explore.

The Wall Street Journal

Beautiful . . . Bellerby’s love of globes is contagious . . . Interspersed with Bellerby’s account of his progress are interesting factoids about the planet, the heavens, the need to update maps, the tilt of the earth, the role of the equator in both the earth and on globes, and many other tidbits . . . The Globemakers is ultimately about passion and how the true reward of work is found in the type of satisfaction Bellerby acknowledges at the end of his tale. Thanks to it, my globe will certainly accompany me on any future moves.

Washington Independent Review of Books

Readers will be fascinated by Bellerby’s reverential and sometimes existential musings, which are enriched by stunning photos of the globemaking process. It’s a fascinating deep dive into an arcane art.

Publishers Weekly

As fascinating as it is informative, The Globemakers is beautifully and profusely illustrated in full color throughout.

Midwest Book Review

What did humans do before satellites, cameras, and space capsules were around? The Globemakers shows you, with a fascinating look at the very meticulous, very necessary job of making globes . . . Readers will appreciate that this journey includes lots of pictures; don’t be surprised if it spurs a new hobby for you or a giftee, either.

The Goshen News, "The Bookworm Sez"

Peter Bellerby’s tale of learning how to fashion worlds—a journey through history, science, craft, and passion—spun me on my axis.

Dava Sobel, New York Times bestselling author of LONGITUDE

A fascinating story, beautifully told.

Andrew Pettegree, author of THE LIBRARY: A FRAGILE HISTORY and THE BOOK AT WAR

Craft really does make the world go round, and no book captures that better than Peter Bellerby’s beautiful tribute to the techniques of globemakers. He has truly mastered these little-known processes, and written about them with comparable skill. Every craft is a universe unto itself; Bellerby has captured his, and somehow fit it all into one book. An inspiring achievement.

Glenn Adamson, author of CRAFT: AN AMERICAN HISTORY

The Globemakers takes you both around the world and through time in a journey that is at once deeply personal and compelling, yet grounded in the history of the way humans have always tried to make sense of our bizarre and beautiful planet.

David Perry, author of THE BRIGHT AGES

Bellerby & Co. is one of the only remaining ateliers that still makes globes by hand using a meticulous step-by-step process that hasn’t deviated much over the centuries … the end result is worth the wait.

Smithsonian Magazine

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