[R] Plotting panels at arbitrary places on a map, rather than on a lattice

[Michael Dewey]

I think it is easiest to describe
what I want in terms of the concrete
problem I have.

I have data from a number of countries
in each of which a sample of people was
interviewed. In presenting the results
in a forthcoming collaborative publication
much emphasis will be placed on the
multi-centre nature of the study. Although
I suspect colleagues may do this with
shaded maps I would prefer to avoid
them as (a) they present one fact per
country per map (b) they are unfair to
the Netherlands and other high density
countries.

What I would like to do is to make
the background represent Europe (ideally
with a map but that is a frill) then
place simple scattergrams (or radar plots)
on it located roughly where the country
is. Another way of describing it might
be to say that I want something like
the panels produced by lattice but at
arbitrary coordinates rather than on
a rectangular grid. I suspect I have
to do this from scratch and I would
welcome hints.

Am I right that there is no off the
shelf way to do this?

Is grid the way to go? Looking at the
article in Rnews 2(2) and a brief scan
of the documentation suggests so.
If grid is the way to go then bearing
in mind I have never used grid before
(a) any hints about the overall
possible solution structure
would be welcome (b) is this realistic to
do within a week or shall I revert to
lattice and lose the geography?

Is there a simple way to draw a map
in the background? It needs to cover
as far as Sweden, Spain and Greece.
It can be crude,
as long as Italy looks roughly like
a boot that is fine. I am an epidemiologist
not a geographer.





Michael Dewey
m.dewey at iop.kcl.ac.uk