4 colour book review by Robin Wilson

(Four Colors Suffice: How the Map Problem Was Solved: How the Map Problem Was Solved)

(brief review of a 2002 book, as some other good reviews on Amazon)

Far be it from me to criticize the great Ian Stewart but his “spoiler alert” in the final paragraph of his foreward had me stumped from the front cover provided. I then looked to my shelves to see if my (Penguin) copy’s different image would help, No. The inside quote about drawing maps of the USA on a torus needing 7 colours was interesting, though

I re-read the intro by Robin Wilson and saw that in 2002 it was the 25th anniversary of the solution by computer (ie 1977 — when I was 21 and soldering my first computer) which is the point of the book.

BTW I revisited this page following a Black Friday Amazon email recommending Mr Wilson’s (son of Harold) latest work in the Oxford Press VSI entitled Number Theory.