Andrew Pettie & Conrad Quilty-Harper (text), Valentina D’Efilippo (infographics), Britannica’s Encyclopedia Infographica, Britannica Books, October 2023, 325 pp., RRP $59.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781913750459
Just when you might have thought that the internet has made the encyclopedia redundant, Britannica’s team have come up with a concept and package that is irresistible. This encyclopedia, like all encyclopedias, is encyclopedic—which means it has a lot of information packed into it: about space, biology, languages, poo, mucus, sleep, temperatures, evolution, black holes, wind, caves, climate change and much much else.
This book is also a beautiful lesson and an engrossing demonstration on how to present information. ‘Infographics’ is a set of techniques that aim to present numbers, quantities, sizes, times, trends and places as quickly understood visual comparisons. Data is translated into pictures. On a ‘Welcome!’ page, the authors make the point that we are a very visual species, so it makes sense to use this mode for learning about many things we can’t actually see directly.
The value of this book is its consistent clarity and its gradual introduction to skills in understanding scales, graphs, charts, and visual comparisons of many kinds. It would not be possible to have this sort of presentation so wonderfully curated by simply searching the internet. But the internet is not absent, for there are long pages of sources indicated at the back of the book for those who do want to go exploring what is out there on the web in association with what they find in this amazing book. It is worth noting that in a world where it is becoming increasingly difficult to find reliable facts and information, this book has been produced by a team that includes some of the world’s leading scientists and many researchers who were willing to scour academic and scientific journals for nuggets of hard-to-find data.
The book’s sections are usefully divided into Space, Land-Sea-and-Sky, Living Planet, Animals, Human Body, Human World. And there is an extensive index at the back, essential for those who go to this encyclopedia with a specific question. Before we go, did you know that 25% of all known living species on earth are beetles, and that 70% of the fresh water on earth is frozen? Recommended for readers from five to one hundred.
Reviewed by Kevin Brophy