You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon, but Get Lost in the Mall Hardback - 2009

Media reviews

"Delightfully lucid....[Ellard writes with] charm and confidence....Ellard has a knack for distilling obscure scientific theories into practical wisdom."--Jonah Lehrer, The Times Book Review

"[O]ne of the finest science writers I've ever read....mind-expanding book....thoroughly digestible....You know you are in the hands of a good teacher when you look up from a book and your own ideas spill out like winnings from a slot machine. It's fun, pure fun."--The Los Angeles Times

“[A] smart, deeply satisfying exploration of how creatures from insects to humans handle the complexities of physical space…..his message is well-reasoned and important.” -- The Cleveland Plain Dealer

"This delightful, dense and illuminating book by Ellard, an experimental psychologist, explores how we navigate space and hone our sense of direction, despite being paradoxically spatially primitive and overly evolved. All animals, monocellular and multicellular alike, find their way to their basic needs–heat, light and nourishment–but while ants, for example, don't get lost and amoebas are guided by an “internal toolkit,” most human beings face unique difficulties. Unlike the Inuit, who have a superb sense of direction, most people find that the more sophisticated their environments, the weaker their grasp of space and direction. Ellard offers insights into how humans navigate their own homes and why they select certain spots for refuge–preferences influenced by gender, culture and history. He emphasizes the importance of orienting children to natural space as well as “virtual spaces,” and his chapter on cities serves as an excellent primer on urban planning and psychogeography, the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographic environment on the emotions." (July)-- Publishers Weekly


“Colin Ellard’s new book, You Are Here, is a powerful inquiry into how we humans orient ourselves in space and identify places both familiar and new.  As an architect, and someone who loves the experiential qualities of three dimensional space, this book took me on a journey to places I’d never even considered before–such as how other creatures on this planet orient themselves, and why it is that our prodigious brain can invent worlds that far outstrip the abilities of our more primitive orienting sensory apparatus.  It’s a stimulating and provocative read for anyone who’s looking for a better understanding of how we process the world around us and orient ourselves within our habitations and living environments.” 
--Sarah Susanka, architect and author of The Not So Big House series and The Not So Big Life


“Ants find their way back to their nest and bees to their hives with remarkable ease, and homing pigeons follow flight paths over incredible distances with uncanny accuracy, but humans seem to need a GPS to keep from getting lost in a mall. Colin Ellard not only delves into such phenomena with élan, he also introduces us to the world of navigational research, a world most of us don't even know exists. You Are Here is sure to direct you down some paths you've never explored before, and no, you won't get lost.”
 –Joe Schwarcz, PhD, author of An Apple a Day


“In this fascinating journey to the wild frontiers of human navigation, Colin Ellard makes it clear that the space around us has made us the species we are. As Ellard pulls together his research into Inuit hunting parties, search and rescue teams, deep sea fishermen and the problems of the modern city dweller, he reveals how our sense of space and direction — and its limitations — has affected every civilisation on Earth. You Are Here is witty and engaging and crammed with profound insights. What’s more, it’s useful too: if you, or your keys, have ever got lost, Ellard can tell you how it happened — and how to stop it happening again.”
–Michael Brooks, PhD, author of Thirteen Things That Don’t Make Sense