Book of the week: A Brief History of Motion by Tom Standage

Standage’s history of wheeled transport is richly rewarding

Cars
(Image credit: Feature China/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

“It’s a fantasy most of us have at some point,” said Blake Morrison in The Guardian: “to fake our death and fetch up in a distant country”.

In November 1974, the Labour MP John Stonehouse left his clothes on a Miami beach and then caught a flight to Australia using a false passport. His businesses were going under, rumours were growing that he was a spy, and he was having an affair with his secretary. “All of which led him to seek refuge in a new identity.”

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