Great Railway Journeys (BBC Books) [Paperback]

An enjoyable, light read, this is an excellent accompaniment to the television series. Michael Palin's section, as ever, displays his warmth and ability to turn what could be a mundane railway journey into a nice little adventure. The other sections of the book are just as readable, all-in-all making for something to read at night or on a long journey. A nice way to see the world from your armchair, bringing back and adding to childhood memories of train journies.

This book was based on a BBC TV series (which sadly does not seem to be available on DVD) in the early 1990s, in which 6 invited `celebrities' undertook unusual train journeys. Each presenter is the author of one chapter with an accompanying map and 2-3 colour photos.
As you might imagine the chapters are highly individual, reflecting the different personalities and writing styles and your personal preference will depend on your tastes.
Mark Tully, the BBC correspondent, describes a journey through Pakistan to the Khyber Pass. This chapter hooked me for the rest of the book - it is perhaps the best balanced of all the chapters in terms of its combination of description of the actual train journey itself, travel guide to interesting points and personalities involved. My only criticism (not Tully's fault) is that he seems to have been accompanied by officials all the way and hence tends to see newly whitewashed walls rather than `the true grime'.
Second is Lisa St Aubin de Teran's chapter on a journey from the coast of Brazil to Santa Cruz in Bolivia. She describes a chaotic and decaying railway system, and is the best of all the authors at meeting and describing local people and scenes along the way. The most memorable moment was after she had spent a day with a peasant family and as a gift gave them the equivalent of a £20 for their trouble. They thank her for this gift of a banknote from Lisa's country, the point being that they were so poor they had never seen a note of this value in their own currency.
The funniest chapter is Clive Anderson's journey from Hong Kong through China to Mongolia. I don't think I would want to read a whole book by him, but his sense of humour and insights worked really well in a single chapter.
The first chapter that disappointed me was by the ballerina Natalia Makarova, an exile returning to the glasnost Russia of the time with her teenage son who had been brought up in America. I enjoyed this less because it felt much more personal to her, about the places and people she was revisiting. The experience of travelling (don't forget the title is "Great Railway Journeys") hardly got a mention.
The other chapter that disappointed me, to my surprise, was the one by Michael Palin describing his journey from Derry in Northern Ireland to Kerry in the south west of the Republic. Maybe it was unpromising material, but his descriptions felt superficial, going through a series of events pre-arranged by a researcher.
Fortunately the book ends on a strongpoint, with a `time capsule' chapter by Rian Malan, a novelist, describing a journey through South Africa at the time the old regime of de Klerk was negotiating with the newly released Nelson Mandela on the terms for the first general election with universal suffrage. The chapter works on several levels: as a description of the journey, of the places and people and (unintentionally) as a snapshot of history in the making. Malan is pessimistic about the prospects for a peaceful handover, imaging years of civil war or unrest and it is to the credit of all involved that this was not heavily rewritten with hindsight.
In summary, I would imagine most people would enjoy 3-4 chapters of the quite idiosyncratic writing. I got my copy through Used & New for a penny and that represents excellent value!

avery good wee book..with a fair amount of nostalga...
not the best book ever written ,but never the less a good one