Attempt number two attempted to do the same thing one a more modest scale, and that was the version that produced 12,000 words before becoming totally confusing to me (never mind to anyone else) – again, too much detail specific to that particular example was getting in the way.

Attempt number three produced a half-finished map before I realised that I had inadvertantly saved the stage-by-stage maps over the top of each other. I tried re-creating them and the whole thing became a total mess because the text and examples no longer matched – and it was going to be so big that it would not have worked as a blog post anyway.

Attempt number 4 is the one that’s currently in progress. It takes a more abstract approach to the examples, culling virtually all the elements from the map that would make it a distinctive location – so that only the principles that I was attempting to illustrate come through. That’s the version that’s about half-done at the moment!

I might end up doing the example in two parts – the part I’ve already done and another part to follow at a later time – just so that you, and any other readers who have been patiently waiting, have at least something to look at.