Product Description

Ever since Paul Theroux set off on the marathon journey that became the bestselling travel book The Great Railway Bazaar, we have loved reading about travelling by train. In an age when low-cost airlines have reduced continental travel to a point-to-point aerial bus service, the train can still take us on a genuine journey, nosing through sweeping valleys, across vertiginous viaducts, stopping at tiny halts in the middle of nowhere in the dead of night. And, for better or worse, it brings along its own shotgun travelling community: the delightful breakfast companions chance-met in the dining car, or the crazy loner with whom one faces the prospect of sharing a sleeper compartment across the Urals. Now, Michael Kerr, the Daily Telegraph's deputy travel editor, has gone back through the archives to compile a riveting anthology of all the best railway travel that has appeared in the paper. Here are epic forays from Wick in northernmost Scotland all the way to Vladivostok, across India, high over the Andean Altiplano, from Moscow to Peking, and on the Sunset Express across America to California. From Michael Palin to Nicholas Crane, Lee Langley to Janet Daley, the Telegraph's writers sample every kind of train from the luxurious Orient Express to the newly-reopened Welsh Highland narrow-gauge and even the insanely crowded commuter trains of Bombay. Here are historic events like the last day of steam in Britain and less momentous but equally emblematic experiences like the signal failure in the Midlands which rouses Boris Johnson's 'inner McEnroe'. And sometimes the journey itself becomes an unexpected adventure, as Sean Hignett finds himself clambering onto the roof of his train across the Sierra Madre in Mexico, Sophie Campbell finds herself embroiled in epic and unwise vodka-fuelled carousing while crossing Siberia, and Janet Daley takes a stand against yobs in her London Underground carriage. By turns hilarious and alarming, this is armchair travel at its very best and the perfect book, indeed, for a long train journey.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #669 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-25
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Customer Reviews

A travel book not a train book
I bought this as a gift for my dad, who is train mad. I had read the official reviews and thought it looked very interesting, and as it is written as short essays/articles it would be easy to pick up and put down and make it last. Dad says he enjoyed it and it's well-written but he would have preferred more information about the actual trains involved in the journeys. However, it is a good-looking book with a lovely dust jacket and would be a very good gift for those interested in any kind of travel adventures.

RAILWAY JOURNEYS - TELEGRAPH WRITERS

An enjoyable read. It was a pity that there were no illustrations which would have made it even better.