The London Underground, Overground

Walk the Lines

An obsessive walks the entire London Underground system overground

This engaging book puts its best foot forward

Crammed with delightful facts ... a constantly fascinating journey

Mason may have made himself the Bill Bryson of our capital city

I was charmed by the book's profusion of insightful anecdotes and fascinating trivia

Born in the Midlands in 1971, Mark Mason moved to London when he was 20. Over the next 13 years he sold Christmas cards in Harrods, made radio programmes for the BBC and busked outside Eric Clapton gigs at the Royal Albert Hall. He also published three novels, several books of non-fiction, and wrote for publications as diverse as The Spectator and FourFourTwo. He continues to do some of these things, though has now defected to Suffolk, where he lives with his partner and son.

The only way to truly discover a city, they say, is on foot. Taking this to extremes, Mark Mason sets out to walk the entire length of the London Underground - overground - passing every station on the way. 
 
In a story packed with historical trivia, personal musings and eavesdropped conversations, Mark learns how to get the best gossip in the City, where to find a pint at 7am, and why the Bank of England won't let you join the M11 northbound at Junction 5. He has an East End cup of tea with the Krays' official biographer, discovers what cabbies mean by 'on the cotton', and meets the Archers star who was the voice of 'Mind the Gap'. 
 
Over the course of several hundred miles, Mark contemplates London's contradictions as well as its charms. He gains insights into our fascination with maps and sees how walking changes our view of the world. Above all, in this love letter to a complicated friend, he celebrates the sights, sounds and soul of the greatest city on earth.

In Search of the Perfect Fact

The Importance of Being Trivial

An entertaining and trivia-filled account of our obsession with trivia

Mason's personal odyssey has an irresistibly hapless charm.

... a bridge back to proper reading for those who have become unhealthily addicted to the likes of "Steve Wright's Further Factoids".

I loved this book - this is quality trivia.

...a collection of joyously irrelevant titbits of information

In his amiable book, Mark Mason examines why some people are fascinated by trivia and tries to pinpoint what makes the perfect fact

Mark Mason's previous non-fiction includes The Bluffer's Guide To Football and The Bluffer's Guide To Bond. He is also the author of three novels, and has written for most British national newspapers (though never about anything too heavy), and magazines from the Spectator to Four Four Two.

If you're intrigued by the fact that Jack the Ripper was left-handed, or that Heinz ketchup flows at 0.7 miles per day - and, more importantly, intrigued by why you're intrigued - then this book is required reading. Convinced that our love of trivia must reveal something truly important about us, Mark Mason sets out to discover what that something is. And, in the process, he asks the fundamental questions that keep all trivialists awake at night: Why is it so difficult to forget that Keith Richards was a choirboy at the Queen's coronation when it's so hard to remember what we did last Thursday? Are men more obsessed with trivia than women? Can it be proved that house flies hum in the key of F? Can anything ever really be proved? And the biggest question of them all: is there a perfect fact, and if so what is it?

Mark Mason

This book should be on the National Curriculum.

A good source of factoids, I’m thinking.

The facts just spill out over the pages - so much you can learn.

At 10.41am on a Tuesday morning in September, Mark Mason boards the number 1A bus at Land’s End in Cornwall. Forty-six buses and eleven days later he disembarks at John O’Groats in Scotland. Move Along Please is his account of that gruelling 1100-mile odyssey; a paint-by-bus-numbers portrait of Britain. 
 Along the way he visits everywhere from the village where the internet enters Britain to the urban sprawl of Birmingham (inspiration for the Two Towers in Lord of the Rings). He samples staples of the British diet from curry to the deep-fried Mars Bar, and uncovers countless fascinating facts about his native land – did you know, for example, that Crewe Alexandra football club is named after the wife of Edward VII, that Loch Ness could hold the water from all the lakes in England and Wales, or that there is a village which rejoices in the name Tongue End? 
 Set against the backdrop of 2000 years of history and with a full supporting cast drawn from that most unusual of species, the Great British Public, this is the unmissable story of a man rediscovering his nation in all its idiosyncratic glory.

Mark Mason

Praise for Move Along, Please

This book should be on the National Curriculum.

Amazing.

A good source of factoids, I’m thinking.

This book should be on the National Curriculum.

Amazing.

A good source of factoids, I’m thinking.

This book should be on the National Curriculum.

Amazing.

A good source of factoids, I’m thinking.

Books by Mark Mason

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