Author and broadcaster Mark Ovenden, who was raised on the Isle of Wight and is now based here, is putting Britain’s railway maps under the spotlight in a new book charting 200 years of railway design – including references to the Island and its routes.
Mark, who was raised on the Isle of Wight for a time and attended Cowes High School from the age of 13, later moved to the mainland in 1980 to pursue a career in design, music and broadcasting.
After almost 4 decades away, he returned to the Isle of Wight in 2019 to look after his mother and has remained living on the Island ever since.
He has now co-written Mapping Britain’s Railways: The Design History of a Nation on Track with National Rail mapmaker Andrew Smithers.
Published by British Library Publishing in August 2026, the book explores how railway maps and route diagrams have developed since Britain’s railways first began operating 200 years ago.
It features more than 300 colourful railway maps and schematics from across the country, tracing their development from simple line drawings to increasingly complex diagrams designed to give passengers clear information.
Several mentions of the Isle of Wight and its railway routes are included in the book.
For Mark, the publication also has a link back to his school days in Cowes, where teachers helped encourage his early interest in maps and design.
Mark has said:
“Some great art teachers at Cowes encouraged my interest in maps and design and since I’ve been living back on the island since 2019, I’ve produced three books featuring cartography.
“Wish I could find those old geography and art teachers from Cowes High who were so insightful in spotting a spark of interest in mapping and transport.”
After leaving the Isle of Wight in 1980, Mark worked at BBC Radio Solent in Southampton, published Due South magazine and worked as a journalist for local radio station PowerFM.
He moved to Manchester in the 1990s, where he produced shows for BBC Radio 1 and worked at dance radio station Kiss102.
During the 2000s, Mark returned to Radio 1, producing broadcasters including Annie Nightingale and John Peel, as well as working for MTV as a music programmer.
His first book, Metro Maps of the World, was published by Penguin in New York in 2003 and became an international bestseller.
Further books followed on the Paris Metro and London Underground. His works have sold a quarter of a million copies and have been translated into Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Japanese and Spanish.
Mark, who is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, returned to the Isle of Wight in 2019 and has made the Island his home ever since.
He now presents a weekly FM radio programme about transport and design on Vectis Radio each Friday, which is also available as a podcast and has an international following.
His co-author, Andrew Smithers, has designed Britain’s National Rail map in its various forms since 2009, as well as producing other maps for Network Rail. He also runs the Project Mapping website.
Mapping Britain’s Railways looks at how British railway cartographers helped pioneer clear passenger information, including work which predated the now-iconic London Underground diagram.
It also examines how railway maps have moved beyond their original practical purpose to become recognisable pieces of design and brand iconography.
