The Great British and Irish Venn diagram 5 Feb 2008

We love this simple Venn diagram explanation of the differences between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and the British Isles (We recently got into a right old mess trying to explain these distinctions to some American pals and would have loved to have had something like this to hand!). If you are wondering what the colours indicate, author / designer Sam Hughes informs us that "The Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom are the only two sovereign states in this image. They are shown in red. Ireland and Great Britain are both islands and are shown in green. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are constituent countries of the United Kingdom and are shown in orange."

As with all diagrams and illustrations, this is something of a simplification. There are many other islands in the British Isles that aren't shown in the above, for example (including the the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands). And Sam lists a number of further omissions and complications on his website - which is well worth a look.