On The Slow Train

On The Slow Train

Twelve Great British Railway Journeys

Summary

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Never was the sadness of the end of an affair so poignantly expressed than in Flanders and Swann's elegy The Slow Train:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6OHD2uCpfU

This audiobook will take the reader on the slow train to another era when travel meant more than hurrying from one place to the next, the journey meaning nothing but time lost in crowded carriages, condemned by broken timetables. On the Slow Train will reconnect with that long-missed need to lift our heads from the daily grind and reflect that there are still places in Britain where we can stop and stare. It will tap into many things: a love of railways, a love of history, a love of nostalgia.

It will be a paean to another age before milk churns, porters and cats on seats were replaced by security announcements and Burger King. These 12 spectacular journeys will help free us from what Baudelaire denounced as 'the horrible burden of time.'


© Michael Williams 2010 (P) Penguin Audio 2010

Reviews

  • The author does take us along memory lane , but his description of each route also encapsulates a taste of 21st century Britain gleaned from talking to the people he meets along the way ... an intriguing social snapshot.
    Heritage Railway

About the author

Michael Williams

MICHAEL WILLIAMS is the best-selling author of On the Slow Train, On the Slow Train Again, Steaming to Victory and The Trains Now Departed. Michael is a journalist and academic – writing, broadcasting and blogging on transport, society, the media and other issues of the day for the national media and many other outlets, including the Independent, the Independent on Sunday, the BBC, the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian the New Statesman, the Tablet, the History Channel, as well as the specialist and business press. Michael is also a leading travel writer, reporting on journeys around the world for a variety of publications. In his academic role, he is co-editor and author of the book The Future of Quality News Journalism. Formerly, he was deputy editor of the Independent on Sunday, executive editor of The Independent and head of news and features at the Sunday Times. Previously he was a member of the home news staff of The Times in London. In addition, Michael Williams is chairman of the Springdene Care Homes group in London and external examiner in the School of Media and Communication at Goldsmiths University, London. He lives with his family in Camden Town, London..
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