Tom Pow recently spent six months as writer in residence at the National Library of Scotland's map library in Edinburgh, and was inspired to write a series of poems, including one to "The prince of cartographers,"John George Bartholomew (1860-1920).

Among the longer material in the book is this charming snippet. (Concerning the Atlas of Scotland and Other Poems is published by Polygon at £12.99 paperback).

ORCHARD

An old map shows that,

where our terraced house

now stands, there was once

an orchard; neat rows

of prim pen and ink trees.

What fruit grew there

it doesn't say, but

on warm summer nights,

I hear ghost apples

pock the dry earth.

I smell the sweetness

of pears after rain.