Launch party of 'The Year of Bad Maps' by Sophie Radice.

This work of fiction is inspired by Sophie Radice's travels, work alongside refugees and asylum seekers, and Crown Court Case.

The Year of Bad Maps moves between South East Asia, the Calais refugee camp, and a Crown Court in Kent. Kate Mancini’s life could be charted through badly drawn directions, but it is really told through the people who guide her. Where maps fail, Kate—an NGO worker and divorced mother—finds her way through strangers: a debt-ridden tuk-tuk driver in Hoi Chi Minh, a reckless playboy in Hampi, a sharp-witted Bangalore guesthouse owner with a troubled past, and a love-struck lotus-weaving guide.

That year of adventure collides with a harsher present. Back in England, Kate faces Crown Court, accused of assisting unlawful immigration, as her compassion is reframed as guilt. As travel gives way to trial, the novel moves between humour and reckoning, exposing how tourism romanticises movement while migration criminalises it. Encounters that once felt generous or accidental become evidence, and borders reveal themselves not as lines on maps but as systems of power. The Year of Bad Maps asks who gets to move freely, who must justify every step, and what it costs to take the human route when the world demands straight lines.

Info: Marchu is a close friend, ex-colleague and ex-housemate, who continues to work in the migration and refugee sector. We were working together during the period the book covers and living together just after my court case. She seemed the perfect person to interview me about 'The Year of Bad Maps'.

Info: https://www.instagram.com/donwella_/?hl=en

Info: https://www.instagram.com/itslouisvi/

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Tabernacle, 34-35 Powis Square, London, United Kingdom

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