(Untitled)

[kaze_to_kodoku]

I've got a question. I noticed in the book (I'm rereading it for the umpteenth time) that they refer to speeds and distances in miles. I always thought that the UK used kilometers and all that jazz. However, I live on the other side of the pond, so I may be wrong. Am I, or is that Neil Gaiman being American?

Comments

[redbird]

The UK is officially metric, but there's a lot of left-over usage of imperial units. It's only in the last few years that almost everything has been required to be measured only in metric units for commercial purposes. (Exceptions include that beer and milk may both still be sold in pints.) Road signs give distances in kilometres, though, and have for years.

[I'm also American, so I welcome corrections and elaborations from anyone actually resident in the UK.)

Note also that while Neil Gaiman has lived in the US for quite a while, PTerry is a UK resident.

[elfbystarlight]

Road signs give distances in kilometres, though, and have for years.

Not in England. Two measurements are used, depending on where you are - miles, or Cornish miles.

(Cornish road signs frequently say something is ten miles, and eight miles later tell you again that you have ten miles to go. ;) )

Most commercial food-y things haven't been labeled in imperial for some time - certainly my generation (~25) were raised in metric for such things (though we typically 'speak' imperial at home). This is not consistent - height is still in feet an inches, and weight in stones.

[elfbystarlight]

(Although you are right that it was only recently that we were required to stop labelling things in imperial, to the great distress of everyone over 50 and the total lack of even registering it to everyone under.)

[espresso_addict]

There's an in-between generation, into which I fall, who failed to form an intuitive understanding of either set of units.

[sanguineheart]

There generally are, I believe, American and British versions. Obviously some things are so British they have to stay, but I think stuff like miles/kilometres get switched to match the place the book is being published for..:)

[cynicaloptimist]

This isn't one of them. We really do use miles.

The UK has a strange blend of metric and Imperial. We tend to think in Imperial, but legally weights and other measures are usually metric. So it's quite normal to go to the shop for a pint of milk and pick up a carton measured as 550ml. Places like DIY shops usually measure in both. For example, it wouldn't be seen as odd to go into a shop and ask for 1500mm of 2" by 4".

Distances and speed limits are still in miles and mph though.

[kelly_holden]

You'd ask for 1500mm of 2 by 4 in Australia, too, and Imperial is only something you come across here in old or imported media, and when measuring small or very large people.

[selenityshiroi]

I work in a builders merchants and just stare blankly at anyone who asks for imperial measurements in timber! I'm 23, and although I was brought up on metric (and then did all science courses to ram more metric down my throat) I should have learnt SOME imperial at school. I was somehow sick on ALL those days

[elfbystarlight]

The UK uses miles. *Europe* uses kilometres ;)

[ormery]

And everyone knows the UK isn;'t really Europe. Kthnx. c:

[kaze_to_kodoku]

Thanks for clearing up the confusion. It's just one of those random things that I would like to know, should anyone ever ask me the same thing.

[elva_barr]

I'm pretty sure it's a combination of a hesitancy to convert fully to Metric and also Gaiman's inherit love for American culture. Granted, as I am neither English nor American, I might not have such a great say?