Belles and Whistles

Journeys Through Time on Britain's Trains

By: Andrew Martin, Ross Benjamin (Translator)

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Paperback | 2 January 2015

At a Glance

Paperback
288 Pages

Age
0

Dimensions(cm)
1.9 x 13 x 19.8

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$31.75

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The bestselling author of Underground, Overground recaptures the glamour of a lost age of rail travel and trains by travelling Britain's most famous train journeys.

In the heroic days of rail travel, you could dine on kippers and champagne aboard the Brighton Belle; smoke a post-prandial cigar as the Golden Arrow closed in on Paris, or be shaved by the Flying Scotsman's on-board barber. Everyone from schoolboys to socialites knew of these glamorous 'named trains' and aspired to ride aboard them.

In Belles and Whistles, Andrew Martin recreates these famous train journeys by travelling aboard their nearest modern day equivalents. Sometimes their names have survived, even if only as a footnote on a timetable leaflet, but what has usually - if not always - disappeared is the extravagance and luxury. As Martin explains how we got from there to here, evocations of the Golden Age contrast with the starker modern reality: from monogrammed cutlery to stirring sticks, from silence on trains to tannoy announcements, from compartments to airline seating. For those who wonder whatever happened to porters, dining cars, mellow lighting, timetables, luggage in advance, trunk murders, the answers are all here.

Martin's five journeys add up to an idiosyncratic history of Britain's railways, combining humour, historical anecdote and reportage from the present and romantic evocations of the past.

Industry Reviews

Whether describing his trips to Paris or Penzance, Martin is entertaining company, alive to the history of his route ... leaves you with renewed confidence that trains can still be the most civilised way to travel. -- Orlando Bird * FT *
A bittersweet journey of contrasts between romance and reality. Martin's wry, witty commentary punches more than just tickets. -- Iain Finlayson * Saga *
His wonderfully well-informed, anecdotal prose punches more than just tickets -- Iain Finlayson * Times *

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