Peter Hohenhaus’s ‘Atlas of Dark Destinations’ (Laurence King Publishing, £25, ISBN 98719194719 4) would make a good Christmas present for a serious person with an interest in history, including the history of technology. It was probably a mistake, however, to release it at the tail-end of October, in time for Halloween, and to make it look like a collection of horror stories. A funereal front cover, with the title in bright Gothic red against the pitch-black background; a subtitle mentioning ‘dark tourism’ - what is this? Tourism after dark, like looking for the Aurora Borealis in Iceland?
Contrary to the impression created by the cover design, this is much more than just a spooky Halloween read. It does not so much scare you as make you think. In my case, it made me commiserate again at having had the misfortune to grow up under a social order that was the source of quite a lot of the world’s ‘darkness’.
The back cover, featuring an aerial view of a...