The rollercoaster king: the man behind the UK’s fastest thrill-ride
John Burton was just 27 when he was put in charge of creating Thorpe Park’s biggest-ever project. Once too scared to go on rides himself, how did he become the architect of so many daredevils’ dreams?...
30 Dec 202445min
Best of 2024: ‘If there’s nowhere else to go, this is where they come’: how Britain’s libraries provide much more than books
Every Monday and Friday for the rest of December we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2023, in case you missed them, with an introduction from the editorial team to explain why we...
27 Dec 202435min
Best of 2024: As a teenager, John was jailed for assaulting someone and stealing their bike. That was 17 years ago – will he ever be released?
Every Monday and Friday for the rest of December we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2023, in case you missed them, with an introduction from the editorial team to explain why we...
23 Dec 202443min
Best of 2024: ‘It comes for your very soul’: how Alzheimer’s undid my dazzling, creative wife in her 40s
Every Monday and Friday for the rest of December we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2024, in case you missed them, with an introduction from the editorial team to explain why we...
20 Dec 202444min
Best of 2024: Nairobi to New York and back: the loneliness of the internationally educated elite
Every Monday and Friday for the rest of December we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2024, in case you missed them, with an introduction from the editorial team to explain why we...
16 Dec 202434min
Revisited: Two poems, four years in detention: the Chinese dissident who smuggled his writing out of prison
My poems were written in anger after Tiananmen Square. But what motivates most prison writing is a fear of forgetting. Today I am free, but the regime has never stopped its war on words. By Liao Yiwu ...
13 Dec 202432min
10 years of the long read: Ukraine’s death-defying art rescuers (2024)
As the Long Read turns 10 we are raiding the archives to bring you a favourite piece from each year since 2014, with new introductions from the authors. This week from 2024: When Putin invaded, a hist...
11 Dec 202448min
10 years of the long read: ‘All that we had is gone’: my lament for war-torn Khartoum (2023)
As the Long Read turns 10 we are raiding the archives to bring you a favourite piece from each year since 2014, with new introductions from the authors. This week from 2023: Since Sudan’s capital was ...
9 Dec 202439min
