Posted by Jane McMorland Hunter on March 15th, 2022

‘Lost at sea’ means that person can be found, or so Cordelia Hatmaker believes when her father’s ship is sunk. Her resolve is strengthened when she receives a mysterious map and finally learns how to read it. For this is no ordinary map – it can only be read by starlight. This was how The Hatmakers ended and, ever since, I have been waiting to follow Cordelia and her hunt for her father.

I knew the sequel was coming soon – what I was not expecting was to arrive at work on a dull, grey day in January to find a huge gold-and-white stripey hat box waiting for me. Hats I can live without but what the box contained was really exciting, a copy of The Mapmakers, the sequel to The Hatmakers, complete with a perfect lilac bow and a peacock’s feather. There was also a copy of the paperback edition of The Hatmakers, which is beautiful and the book you really need to read first.

As regular readers of this blog will know, I am unashamedly seduced by a pretty cover and The Mapmakers is very pretty. On the jacket there are scenes of a slightly magical version of London and underneath the book has a silver image of Cordelia’s map. This is incredibly useful as it means it is possible to read the map by daylight, lamp light or even candle light as well as the starlight she has to rely upon.

If you have already read The Hatmakers all I really need to say is ‘the sequel is here,’ but, if you are not familiar with the story allow me to introduce you to a wonderful series set in a London which is similar to the one we know but more exciting and more magical. Cordelia’s family are Hatmakers to the Crown, creating hats with lives of their own and the power to influence the wearer. Her father though, is lost at sea after his ship was wrecked on the rocky coast having sailed the world in search of the magical ingredients for the hats. Cordelia is almost the only person who believes he is still alive and merely lost rather than dead.

In The Mapmakers she embarks on the seemingly impossible task of trying to find him, following the very confusing map. But, the more she discovers, the more she realises that the disappearance of her father is tied up with far greater problems for the whole country. The rival Maker families must work together if they are to conquer the evil that threatens them all and in this, as well as in the search for her father, Cordelia has a key role.

The story is exciting, intriguing and, of course, magical. I had a very wonderful couple of days when I ignored everything I should have been doing and immersed myself in Tamzin Merchant’s tale magic, adventure and excitement; I cannot recommend it highly enough.