 Writing in the "New Scientist", Gail Vines placed Piggott's research and the public's enthusiasm for the project in the context of rapid social and technological change in the 1950s that resulted in a moral panic about declining standards of penmanship that reflected a generalised anxiety about threats to standards in a changing world.Piggott's cartography was known for its clarity and elegance which was aided by his distinctive italic lettering.In 2014, the travel writer Nicholas Crane described him as "the most brilliant book-cartographer of our generation".