Belles and Whistles: Journeys Through Time on Britain's Trains

(Paperback, Main)

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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.

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 *

Author Bio

Andrew Martin is a journalist and author. His previous book for Profile, Underground, Overground[9781846684784], was a history of the London Underground. He has written for the Evening Standard, Sunday Times, Independent on Sunday, Daily Telegraph and New Statesman among others. His 'Jim Stringer' series of novels based around railways are published by Faber.