The Un-Discovered Islands (2016)

Illustrated Book of the Year, Edward Stanford Awards
Slate magazine: one of "the best sentences of 2018"
Also available in German, Spanish and Norwegian editions.

"After wowing the world with Sixty Degrees North last year, Tallack's second book is shaped by the same clear, sharp prose and keen curiosity. Packed full of intelligent musings on everything from religion to astronomy, alchemy to the occult.'   National Geographic Traveller 
The Un-Discovered Islands is an exploration of some of the world’s strangest places, illustrated by Katie Scott (Animalium and Botanicum). 

Gathered in this book are two dozen islands once believed to be real but no longer on the map. These are the products of imagination, deception and human error. They are phantoms and fakes: an archipelago of ex-isles and forgotten lands.

​From the well-known story of Atlantis to more obscure tales from around the globe, from ancient history right up to the present day, this is an atlas of legend and wonder, of places discovered and then un-discovered.

Acclaim and reviews

​Slate Magazine selected a sentence from The Un-Discovered Islands as one of the "19 best sentences of 2017". You can read the full list here.
  • One of the "best new travel books" The Guardian. 
  • "A book as thought-provoking as it is engaging, as smart as it is funny, created with real devotion and writerly skill" Doug Johnstone, The Big Issue.
  • "Malachy Tallack is an engaging and fluent writer of essential kindliness" John MacLeod, The Scottish Review of Books.
  • "This is a splendid and wistful book" The Spectator.
  • "It's a joy to island-hop through the book" National Geographic Traveller.
  • "intrepid intellectual fun ... Katie Scott’s bold illustrations give an exotic colour to the pages" The Herald.
  • "Tallack teases all this out with great wit and subtlety" The Scotsman.
  • "Tallack presents these tall tales with tremendous eloquence" Wanderlust magazine.
  • Picked for Best Travel Books of 2016, The Telegraph.
  • Straddling the line between profound examination of the human imagination and coffee table book, Malachy Tallack’s second publication is a strangely engrossing beast.’ The Shetland Times.
  • "a beautiful and fascinating read" Books & Socks.
  • "This is as much a cultural and intellectual history as it is a playful geographical exploration of the imagination." Spectrum Culture.  
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