UK book halts traffic after truck turns over

[September 23, 2010]  LONDON (AP) -- Andrew Marr's latest book is, literally, stopping traffic. Boxes containing 15 British tons (16.8 U.S. tons) worth of the journalist's history volume "The Making of Modern Britain" have been strewn across a busy English road after an accident.

Thames Valley Police said Wednesday that a truck carrying books overturned about 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of London just before midnight on Tuesday. The driver suffered cuts to his arms, and the road was closed throughout the night as the books were cleared away.

Video footage on the BBC website showed smashed-open boxes of the book piled by the roadside.

"The Making of Modern Britain" is described by its publisher as "a fascinating portrait of life in Britain during the first half of the 20th century."

Marr, a BBC reporter and presenter, apologized to anyone who had been inconvenienced, and said he hoped the book was not "being taken off to be pulped."

[Associated Press]

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