The Irish Sea?

Saturday, 11 May 2013

Geography can present publishers with lots of problems. I’ve written in the Lonely Planet Story how it regularly tripped us up. That big inlet in the Middle East? It’s the Arabian Gulf according to the Arab countries on its western side. The Persian Gulf to anybody from Iran on its eastern shores.

That sea to the east of Korea? Ask Koreans and it’s the East Sea of course. Ask the Japanese to the south and it’s the Sea of Japan. The English and French don’t get so upset about their shared sea but in France don’t confuse La Manche – The Sleeve – with the English Channel.

So I was a little surprised, flying into the London from New York on Saturday to discover from the moving map that I wasn’t flying over the Irish Sea. No, it had become the Celtic Sea.