  In this paper we investigate the geometry of projective varieties polarised
by ample and more generally nef and big Weil divisors. First we study
birational boundedness of linear systems. We show that if $X$ is a projective
variety of dimension $d$ with $\epsilon$-lc singularities for $\epsilon>0$, and
if $N$ is a nef and big Weil divisor on $X$ such that $N-K_X$ is
pseudo-effective, then the linear system $|mN|$ defines a birational map for
some natural number $m$ depending only on $d,\epsilon$. This is key to proving
various other results. For example, it implies that if $N$ is a big Weil
divisor (not necessarily nef) on a klt Calabi-Yau variety of dimension $d$,
then the linear system $|mN|$ defines a birational map for some natural number
$m$ depending only on $d$. It also gives new proofs of some known results, for
example, if $X$ is an $\epsilon$-lc Fano variety of dimension $d$ then taking
$N=-K_X$ we recover birationality of $|-mK_X|$ for bounded $m$.
  We prove similar birational boundedness results for nef and big Weil divisors
$N$ on projective klt varieties $X$ when both $K_X$ and $N-K_X$ are
pseudo-effective (here $X$ is not assumed $\epsilon$-lc).
  Using the above, we show boundedness of polarised varieties under some
natural conditions. We extend these to boundedness of semi-log canonical
Calabi-Yau pairs polarised by effective ample Weil divisors not containing lc
centres. We will briefly discuss applications to existence of projective coarse
moduli spaces of such polarised Calabi-Yau pairs.
