Bermuda Atlas Gazetteer by G. Daniel Blagg

Bermuda's hills, bays, beaches and lanes often commemorate local families, house names and other landmarks. Some place names derive from events in the island's history and others are just plain funny. Over in Hamilton Parish Fractious Street memorialises a cantankerous horse, Stardust Drive honours a beloved pet dog and Tumkins Lane, in Pembroke, sounds suspiciously like a cat.

Warwick's Hightime Drive chronicles the dilemma of a young couple expecting a child who decided just before the baby's birth that it was 'high time' to get married! A joyous and uplifting name is Amen Corner; that colourful Warwick title is drawn from the old Methodist Chapel built there between 1825 and 1827 by slaves and free black citizens of Bermuda in the group's spare hours. Although burdened by back breaking labour, the congregation's melodious songs of praise were heard through the night, inspiring the name.

Thus did many of Bermuda's place names arise, yet the titling and mapping of the island's byways, hills, dales, points and bays goes on. Each succeeding generation has the chance to preserve, change or add new ones, drawing inspiration from newly established surnames, from events historic and commonplace, and from its own inventiveness. The resulting legacy is an ongoing cultural chronicle preserving the comedies and tragedies of everyday life, the folklore of the island's people, and the marriages, deaths and even murders of those who call Bermuda home. The Bermuda Atlas and Gazetteer attempts to record them all, offering over four hundred pages of historical text, sixteen new colour maps of the island and fifty original watercolours by West Indian artist Luca Gasperi into the bargain. Royal Gazette editor David L. White said of the Bermuda Atlas: "Perhaps the most important and enjoyable Bermudian book since William Zuill's Bermuda Journey".