Background

My passionate interest in maps began when I was eight.
By eleven, my interest focused on historical maps.
At the University of Budapest (ELTE) I studied history (and Spanish) for five years.
Represented the Faculty of Eastern European History to International Exhibition and Conference at Budapest on Historical Map Making, 1972. Own map contributed, paper presented
Postgraduate degree (corresponding to MA in then and there different system) on completion of studies, 1974. Thesis on boundary changes in Eastern and Central Europe 1525–1914.
Freelance historical map editor, Budapest. Working for various Hungarian employers, taking part especially in three major projects.
Left Hungary in 1978 for political reasons. Settled in London.
Work as freelance historical map editor, and cartographer for many British publishers, and for some employers in other countries, including the United States. Compilation and editing of historical maps, preparation of various types of maps in a variety of styles, some for guide books, others for educational, military, academic or general purposes. For long I prepare maps on screen.
There have been in particular eleven Britain based major projects that I was involved in as an historical cartographer.
My collection of historical atlases assembled over a long period consists of hundreds of volumes, published in 75 countries in 49 languages. (This without counting atlases that are purely geographical, or of a different thematic content, that can also be useful references.)
Also worked again for employers in Hungary as from 1991.
Reviews/critical treatises on atlases published in academic journals in Hungary, in a Hungarian journal in the US, in The Times (of London) and in Roumania.
Essay “Civilizations towards a World Civilization” reviewing world history from the standpoint of political geography in Földrajzi Értesítő, and with maps in ‘2000’ (in Hungarian).
Essay “Central Europe–a Western Landscape” contributing to the debate on the meaning of Central Europe. Coherent definition of its extent offered in Regio (in Hungarian).
Lecture “Maps and History” held at Cambridge in 2001 at the invitation of the History Society of Corpus Christi.
Interviewed by BBC Radio Bristol in connection with a new edition of the Times Atlas of European History, the maps of which I authored. (2001, in paperback: The Times History of Europe.)
Commanding Heights, a WGBH website that I was involved with as ‘Consultant on Historical Maps’ honoured in 2002 with a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award in their Online Learning category.
Contributing regularly to Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet by in depth historical maps and their accompanying articles analyzing/depicting the background of topical international issues, 2008–2014.
Long-term liaising with Prof Richard J. Evans on the creation of dozens of historical maps that I made for his volumes.
Lecturing on “Civilizations towards a World Civilization” in Pécs, Hungary, 2010.
My Erdély történetének atlasza (Historical Atlas of Transylvania) published in Hungary by Méry Ratio, 2011.
Interviewed by a variety of TV and radio stations in Hungary and Roumania about Erdély történetének atlasza, 2011.
Award by the president of Hungary to my Erdély történetének atlasza in 2012. Another award in Budapest annual ‘book week’, same year.
I presented Erdély történetének atlasza in a lecture tour of seven Transylvanian towns, and also in Oslo, Norway, 2012.
My A cigányság történetének atlasza/térképezett roma történelem (Historical atlas of the Gypsies: Romani history in maps) published in Hungary by Méry Ratio, 2018.
I presented A cigányság történetének atlasza/térképezett roma történelem at ‘Tusványos’, Roumania in 2018, and Vienna, Austria, 2019.
Historical atlas of Transylvania published by Méry Ratio & Pro Minoritate, 2021.
Historical atlas of the Gypsies: Romani history in maps published by Méry Ratio & Pro Minoritate, 2021.