Bøker av Alan Rusbridger

A powerful and profound study of the news - how we read it, who controls it and why it matters - from former Guardian Editor-in-Chief Alan Rusbridger

As editor of the Guardian, one of the world's foremost newspapers, Alan Rusbridger abides by the relentless twenty-four-hour news cycle. But increasingly in midlife, he feels the gravitational pull of music-especially the piano. He sets himself a formidable challenge: to fluently learn Chopin's magnificent Ballade No. 1 in G minor, arguably one of the most difficult Romantic compositions in the repertory. With pyrotechnic passages that require feats of memory, dexterity, and power, the piece is one that causes alarm even in battle-hardened concert pianists. He gives himself a year.Under ideal circumstances, this would have been a daunting task. But the particular year Rusbridger chooses turns out to be one of frenetic intensity. As he writes in his introduction, "Perhaps if I'd known then what else would soon be happening in my day job, I might have had second thoughts. For it would transpire that, at the same time, I would be steering the Guardian through one of the most dramatic years in its history." It was a year that began with WikiLeaks' massive dump of state secrets and ended with the Guardian's revelations about widespread phone hacking at News of the World. "In between, there were the Japanese tsunami, the Arab Spring, the English riots . . . and the death of Osama Bin Laden," writes Rusbridger. The test would be to "nibble out" twenty minutes per day to do something totally unrelated to the above.Rusbridger's description of mastering the Ballade is hugely engaging, yet his subject is clearly larger than any one piece of classical music. Play It Again deals with focus, discipline, and desire but is, above all, about the sanctity of one's inner life in a world dominated by deadlines and distractions.What will you do with your twenty minutes?

An A-Z guide on how we stay informed in the era of fake news, from former Guardian Editor-in-Chief Alan Rusbridger

In the midst of this he carved out twenty minutes' practice a day - even if that meant practising in a Libyan hotel in the middle of a revolution as well as gaining insights and advice from an array of legendary pianists, theorists, historians and neuroscientists, and even occasionally from secretaries of state.

Slap bang in the middle of the hottest day of the year, the zoo s drains have blocked up and there s nowhere for the animals' poo to go! Mr Pickles the zoo keeper (who is looking distinctly green) must decide what to do with it all . . . Before the naughty chimps beat him to it!

Slap bang in the middle of the coldest Friday of the coldest week of the year, the central heating breaks down at Melton Mowbray Zoo. The system needs a new flange but flanges can't be obtained on Fridays in Melton Mowbray, so Mr Pickles the head keeper asks all the other keepers to take the animal they are in charge of home for the weekend. The results range from disastrous to successful: when the penguin (who 'always hankered after the good life') decides to eat his tea in Mr Pumbles' bed, and the lion succeeds in scaring off Mr Leaf's mother-in-law to such an extent that she doesn't come back to lunch for three years...

The loveable animals and their keepers at Melton Mowbray Zoo are back! Everyone has recovered from the disastrous weekend when the heating broke and Mr Pickles, the zoo director, asked all the keepers to take their animal home for the weekend. In fact, so much so, that a feeling of nonchalence pervades - the animals have been teamed with the same keepers for years and quite frankly it's become rather boring. So. in a bid to liven things up, the keepers decide to swap animals for the day and, as you can imagine this makes for some lively antics!Told in Alan's inimitable dead-pan voice this is another very charming and extremely funny story brought to life by Ben Cort's hugely imaginative illustrations.