Stevyn Colgan

The intelligent art of solving crimes before they happen. Can lollipops reduce anti-social behaviour? Or wizards halt street gambling? Do fake bus stops protect pensioners? Will organising a dog show stop young people killing each other? Stevyn Colgan believes that the answer to all of those questions is 'Yes'. Packed with fascinating anecdotes and important questions, this astonishing book reveals the innovative and imaginative ways Colgan tried to prevent crime during his thirty years on the police force. Colgan worked for twelve of those years as part of a unique team called The Problem Solving Unit. With no budget and laughable resources, they were given an extraordinary brief -- to solve problems of crime and disorder that wouldn't respond to traditional policing. They were told they could try anything as long as it wasn't illegal, wasn't immoral, wouldn't bring the police into disrepute, and didn't cost very much. With amusing, insightful and sometimes controversial approaches to problem solving, Colgan mixes personal anecdotes from his time on the force with real-world examples of how The Problem Solving Unit helped build communities and prevent recurring crime. At its core, this book's message is simple: police should direct far more effort towards preventing crime before it happens rather than solving crime after it has happened.

How to Solve Problems Before They Arise

Why Did the Policeman Cross the Road?

Sue Black

Imagine a Britain where the most important sites of historical significance are replaced with housing estates and supermarkets. Imagine a Britain without Bletchley Park, where Alan Turing and a team of codebreakers changed the course of World War II and where thousands of women inspired future generations with their work in the fields of computing and technology. Now imagine a group of extraordinary people, who--70 years after the birth of the modern computer at Bletchley Park--used technology to spark a social media campaign that helped secure its future and transform it into the world-class heritage and education center it deserves to be. This is a story about saving Bletchley Park. But it is also the story of the hundreds of people who dedicated 20 years of hard work and determination to the campaign that saved it. It is a testament to the remarkable and mysterious work during World War II that made it a place worth saving. It is a book about campaigners, veterans, enthusiasts, computer geeks, technology, Twitter, trees and Stephen Fry stuck in an elevator. And finally, it is a story about preserving the past for the generations of tomorrow.

Saving Bletchley Park

When hordes of people descend on the picturesque village of Nasely for the annual celebration of its most famous resident, murder mystery writer Agnes Crabbe, events take a dark turn as the festival opens with a shocking death. Each year the residents are outnumbered by crowds dressed as Crabbe's best-known character, the lady detective Millicent Cutter. The weekend is never a mild-mannered affair as fan club rivalries bubble below the surface, but tensions reach new heights whena second Crabbe devotee is found murdered. Though the police are quick to arrive on the scene, the facts are tricky to ascertain as the witnesses, suspects and victim are all dressed as Miss Cutter. And they all want to solve that crime too . . .

A Murder to Die For

'Joined-Up Thinking' links obscure but fascinating facts into circular chapters, each of which begins and ends with the same line. With a final flourish that gives you a shiver, the author then ties all 30 chapters together and takes you right back to the start.

How Everything Connects to Everything Else

Joined-up Thinking

Strange things are going on in Black Dog Wood... A blindfolded skeleton has been unearthed, there have been sightings of some kind of monster, and rumours abound of naughty goings-on at night. And then the local MP, Sir Giles Luscott-Whorne, is accused of murder. Giles’s best chance to prove his innocence lies with retired police detective Frank Shunter. Can he discover whodunit? And what connects all of these curious events to a long-lost manuscript by crime author Agnes Crabbe? In this sequel to A Murder to Die For, Stevyn Colgan once again takes us back to South Herewardshire for a comedy of murderous proportions.

The Diabolical Club

Berkeley Cockering wants to live the hedonistic life of a millionaire playboy. But his sister, Marcheline, is only interested in preserving the family name and refuses to sell off any of their large jointly-owned estate. He therefore embarks upon a drastic course of action to force her to sell, which will involve the owner of a cash-strapped geriatric circus, an alcoholic clown, an incontinent elephant and a sex toy with a mind of its own. Stevyn Colgan’s third – and funniest – South Herewardshire novel continues the series that began with A Murder To Die For and The Diabolical Club.

Cockerings

Imagine a Britain where the most important sites of historical significance are replaced with housing estates and supermarkets... Imagine a Britain without Bletchley Park, where Alan Turing and a team of code breakers changed the course of World War II and where thousands of women inspired future generations with their work in the fields of computing and technology... Now imagine a group of extraordinary people, who – seventy years after the birth of the modern computer at Bletchley Park – used technology to spark a social media campaign that helped secure its future and transform it into the world-class heritage and education centre it deserves to be. This is a story about saving Bletchley Park. But it is also the story of the hundreds of people who dedicated twenty years of hard work and determination to the campaign that saved it. It is a testament to the remarkable and mysterious work during World War II that made it a place worth saving. It is a book about campaigners, veterans, enthusiasts, computer geeks, technology, Twitter, trees and Stephen Fry stuck in a lift. And finally, it is a story about preserving the past for the generations of tomorrow.

How #socialmedia saved the home of the WWII codebreakers

For many years we've known about Six Degrees of Separation: the idea that every person on the planet can be linked by a chain of just six individuals. Now, former Scotland Yard criminal intelligence officer Stevyn Colgan has designed a paper-based wireless device to do the same thing with facts – a kind of Six Degrees of Information. Called the Connectoscope, it will teach you, among many other things, what humans taste like to robots, why there were bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover, how a tree became the New York Stock Exchange, why Bob the Builder has more fingers In Japan than in the UK, who the patron saint of medical records is, and how to make Superman gay. Colgan sets out to prove that everything can be connected. As this dizzyingly fact-filled book shows, the fun lies in figuring out how.

Stevyn Colgan

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