April 2026

The Shrine Anchorite is what got me interested in Trench Crusade.

Well, that’s not strictly true. What got me interested in Trench Crusade was the basic conceit – the Knights Templar open a portal to hell, its legions march forth, fast forward a few centuries to the modern era and you have the colossal tragedy of industrial trench warfare coupled with a world war against the arrayed forces of hell. That drew me in, and the art of Mike Franchina cemented the concept in my brain.

Especially the Anchorite Shrine. It is a walking gothic cathedral piloted by a mad saint. It is the most Warhammer non-warhammer thing. I love it. It is my clanking, industrial-religious behemoth of a son.

Subtitled ‘Ten maps that tell you everything you need to know about global politics’, Prisoners of Geography was first published in 2015 and reissued in 2025 in a new edition. What I have in my hands is the 2015 edition, as this is what my father enthused about on my last visit. I was – pleasantly – surprised to hear him speak of the mess European colonial powers had made in drawing arbitrary lines on maps, so I decided to give the book a go.

It is certainly a page turner and an engaging, accessible on politics and history. It is authored by Tim Marshall, a broadcaster and journalist most known for his career with Sky News, who has also contributed to the BBC and LBC. If your interests intersect with history, geopolitics, sociography or current affairs, and you are not yourself an expert in any of these fields, this book will be of interest. It is a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, and on flying back home after visiting my parents I spotted the new edition in the top ten racks of the airport book shop. It is clearly still selling well.

Painting an Anchorite Shrine

Prisoners of Geography, Tim Marshall