We`ve always measured the world around us, from how big things are, to how fast they go, how much they`re worth & practically everything in between. But who decided how we do it, & why? The Long & the Short of It takes us back in time to discover the origins & evolution of a huge variety of different units of measurement. On the way it answers such questions as: Why do we measure time in units of 60? How do you determine the height of a mountain when sea level keeps changing? Why did the length of a mile once depend on where you came from? What`s the width of a horse`s backside got to do with NASA`s booster rockets? Packed with fascinating stories, this is an intriguing guide to the many systems of measurement that make sense of our daily lives, from pounds & parsecs to bushels & barricades. ...

Winner of the Parliamentary Book Award, best memoir by a Parliamentarian, 2016 From the condemned slums of Southam Street in West London to the corridors of power in Westminster, Alan Johnson`s multi-award-winning autobiography charts an extraordinary journey, almost unimaginable in today`s Britain. This third volume tells of Alan`s early political skirmishes as a trades union leader, where his negotiating skills & charismatic style soon came to the notice of Tony Blair & other senior members of the Labour Party. As a result, Alan was chosen to stand in the constituency of Hull West & Hessle, & entered Parliament as an MP after the landslide election victory for Labour in May 1997. But this is no self-aggrandizing memoir of Westminster politicking & skulduggery. Supporting the struggle of his constituents, the Hull trawlermen & their families, for justice comes more naturally to Alan than do the byzantine complexities of Parliamentary procedure. But of course he does succeed there, & rises through various ministerial positions to the office of Home Secretary in 2009. In The Long & Winding Road, Alan`s characteristic honesty & authenticity shine through every word. His book takes you into a world which is at once familiar & strange: this is politics as you`ve never seen it before... ...

From the condemned slums of Southam Street in West London to the corridors of power in Westminster, Alan Johnson`s multi-award-winning autobiography charts an extraordinary journey, almost unimaginable in today`s Britain. This third volume tells of Alan`s early political skirmishes as a trades union leader, where his negotiating skills & charismatic style soon came to the notice of Tony Blair & other senior members of the Labour Party. As a result, Alan was chosen to stand in the constituency of Hull West & Hessle, & entered Parliament as an MP after the landslide election victory for Labour in May 1997. But this is no self-aggrandizing memoir of Westminster politicking & skulduggery. Supporting the struggle of his constituents, the Hull trawlermen & their families, for justice comes more naturally to Alan than do the byzantine complexities of Parliamentary procedure. But of course he does succeed there, & rises through various ministerial positions to the office of Home Secretary in 2009. In The Long & Winding Road, Alan`s characteristic honesty & authenticity shine through every word. His book takes you into a world which is at once familiar & strange: this is politics as you`ve never seen it before. ...

In classic British crime fiction, dazzling detective work is often the province of a brilliant amateur
- whereas the humble police
...

Urszula Muskus (1903-1972) spent eighteen years as a prisoner in the Gulag Archipelago. Gradually travelling eastwards on long train journeys into Siberia she was first separated from her husband & later from her two children. Before being finally freed she entered into a state of `eternal exile` at Krasnoyarsk, the Long Bridge of the title. Her book is rich in stories of other prisoners, guards, work on the steppe, bandit molls, escapees & their fate. In the course of these travels she learned the fate of those who had been left behind including her husb&. Her story has been translated & pieced together from the many fragments she left behind. It comes from a generous spirit who looked on the world with a uniquely accurate & unselfpitying eye. Urszula`s is a unique voice speaking of terrible times that are still close to our own. ...

`A city no worse than others, a city rich & vigorous & full of pride, a city lost & beaten & full of emptiness. It all depends on where you sit & what your own private score is. I didn`t have one. I didn`t care` Down-&-out drunk Terry Lennox has a problem: his millionaire wife is dead & he needs to get out of LA fast. So he turns to his only friend in the world: private investigator Philip Marlowe. He is willing to help a man down on his luck, but later Lennox commits suicide in Mexico & things start to turn nasty. Marlowe is drawn into a sordid crowd of adulterers & alcoholics in LA`s Idle Valley, where the rich are suffering one big suntanned hangover. Marlowe is sure Lennox didn`t kill his wife, but how many more stiffs will turn up before he gets to the truth? The Long Good-Bye is Raymond Chandler`s sixth novel featuring laconic PI Philip Marlowe.` Chandler gave birth to a different kind of detective` The Times` Chandler grips the mind from the first sentence` Daily Telegraph ` One of the greatest crime writers, who set standards others still try to attain` Sunday Times` Chandler is an original stylist, creator of a character as immortal as Sherlock Holmes` Anthony Burgess ...

In The Long Hangover, Shaun Walker provides a deeply reported, bottom-up explanation of Russia`s resurgence under Putin. By cleverly exploiting the memory of the Soviet victory over fascism in World War II, Putin`s regime has made ordinary Russians feel that their country is great again. Shaun Walker provides new insight into contemporary Russia & its search for a new identity, telling the story through the country`s troubled relationship with its Soviet past. Walker not only explains Vladimir Putin`s goals & the government`s official manipulations of history, but also focuses on ordinary Russians & their motivations. He charts how Putin raised victory in World War II to the status of a national founding myth in the search for a unifying force to heal a divided country, & shows how dangerous the ramifications of this have been. The book explores why Russia, unlike Germany, has failed to come to terms with the darkest pages of its past: Stalin`s purges, the Gulag, & the war deportations. The narrative roams from the corridors of the Kremlin to the wilds of the Gulags & the trenches of East Ukraine. It puts the annexation of Crimea & the newly assertive Russia in the context of the delayed fallout of the Soviet collapse. The Long Hangover is a book about a lost generation: the millions of Russians who lost their country & the subsequent attempts to restore to them a sense of purpose. Packed with analysis but told mainly through vibrant reportage, it is a thoughtful exploration of the legacy of the Soviet collapse & how it has affected life in Russia & Putins policies. ...

The Long Haul is Alex Hibbert’s account of his unsupported voyage, across the icecap to the Arctic coast of Greenl&. Hibbert, & his expedition partner George Bullard, undertook four months, man-hauling 430lb sledges over 1, 374 miles
- further than any previous unsupported polar undertaking. Hibbert had devised an epic plan, with the conscious effort to undertake a trail that would return him & his companion to the raw basics of polar travel. As an isolated double act, Hibbert & Bullard had only each other to rely on for both their survival & their sanity. This account is a reflection on the mental & physical turmoil that the men endured, & a testament to the triumph of mental perseverance.
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Every nation has its founding myth, & for modern China it is the Long March. In 1934, the fledgling Communist Party & its 200, 000 strong armies were forced out of their bases by Chiang Kaishek & his National troops. Walking more than 10, 000 miles over mountains, grassland & swamps, they suffered appalling casualties & ended up in the remote barren North. Just one-fifth survived; they went on to launch the new China in the heat of revolution. A legend was born. Justified by a remarkable feat, the Long March was also a triumph of propaganda, for Mao & for the revolution. Seventy years later Sun Shuyun set out to retrace the Marchers` steps. The rugged landscape has changed little. Her greatest difficult was in wrestling with the scenes lodged in her mind since childhood, part of the upbringing of every Chinese. On each stage of her journey, she found hidden stories: the ruthless purges, the terrible toll of hunger & disease, the fate of women on the March, the huge number of desertions, the futile deaths. The real story of the March, the most vivid pictures, come from the veterans whom Sun Shuyun has found. She follows their trail through all those harsh miles, discovers their faith & disillusion, their pain & their hopes, & also recounts how many suffered even after the March`s end in 1936. ` The Long March` was an epic journey of endurance, even more severe than history books say, & courage against impossible odds. It is a brave, exciting & tragic story. Sun Shuyun tells it for the first time, as it really happened. ...