- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Faber and Faber; First Edition edition (21 Oct 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0571210481
- ISBN-13: 978-0571210480
- Product Dimensions: 20 x 13.8 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 604,983 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was the greatest engineering feat of its age. George and Robert Stephenson's Rocket was to become the most famous locomotive in history. William Huskisson was one of the greatest statesmen of his generation, and certainly the most accident prone. On 15 September 1830, the three met for the first time.Huskisson's fateful accident, in which the Rocket crushed his leg and thigh, is an unforgettable image of the Industrial Revolution. But what really happened on that day? How did the opening of the world's first passenger railway turn from a glorious morning into a tragic afternoon?
The Last Journey of William Huskisson is a wonderfully entertaining tale of ambition, genius, rivalry and legend, plotting the eight year struggle to build a railway with a cast of engineers, politicians, actresses, surgeons, socialites and breathtaking machines. It is a loud and evocative snapshot of the times, but above all it is a deeply affecting human story of one man's shocking and very gory demise.
About the Author
Simon Garfield was born in 1960. He is the author of Expensive Habits: The Dark Side of the Industry, The End of Innocence: Britain in the Time of AIDS, which was awarded the Somerset Maugham Prize, The Wrestling, The Nation's Favourite: The True Adventures of Radio 1, Mauve, The Last Journey of William Huskisson, The Error World and the Mass Observation trilogy Our Hidden Lives, Private Battles and We Are At War. Mini: the True and Secret History of the Making of a Motor Car was published in 2009.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a truly old-fashioned adventure, very much something from the Victorian age. The building of the Liverpool/Manchester railway was an engineering success story that only a few imagined at the time. One of them -ironically enough - was William Huskisson, influential local MP and 'the most accident-prone MP on the planet'. His slow death on the day is the centrepiece of this book, but the real story is how they built the railway and the consequences for travel throughout the world. Simon Garfield provides a rather chilling final chapter in which he mentions the crashes that came after it - from the local ones in the years immediately afterwards to the ones at Hatfield and Potters Bar, which makes us ask how much we have learnt from our own history. Some of the political passages are a little prolonged in what is essentially a human story, but overall this is a grpping book.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As the title suggests, this is ostensibly a book about the famous railway accident in which the MP for Liverpool was killed by Stephenson's Rocket. But it is really about the building of the railway itself - the Liverpool/Manchester route that was the first major railway in the world (well, okay, the first inter-city railway in the world...). It was a titanic effort to construct the 30-mile route, with Huskisson instrumental in bringing it about. Simon Garfield is very good in setting the scene for the need for the railway, and then tracks the whole building of the line. The accident itself, which happened on the opening day, is very shocking when it comes, and described in vivid detail.
Recommended to those who are interested in the pre-Victorian era, and those who just like a good ripping yarn.
Recommended to those who are interested in the pre-Victorian era, and those who just like a good ripping yarn.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As Simon Garfield wisely points out, William Huskisson is 'remembered as that man who got knocked over by that train at the opening of that railway', his notable achievements as MP and Minister largely forgotten. For that reason, if for no other, Garfield's readable and well researched book is very welcome. Somehow, though, it makes rather less impact than might be expected. Though the gathering of information from many contemporary sources is admirable, the opening section (telling many different stories at different times) is more confusing than compelling. Perhaps we learn too much about Huskisson's political career for the good of the main narrative, but too little to be really involved in it. The central story, however, is well told and emerges as just as sad - yet faintly ludicrous -as one would expect.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1840s Britain: A time of momentous change
Simon Garfield could write about the compilation of a telephone directory and I'd read it. I always find his prose very engaging and this is no different. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Garfield fan
A great achievement and a tragic accident
William Huskisson's last journey was on the train-ride which marked the official opening of the Liverpool-Manchester Railway on 8 September 1830, an event which was marred by the... Read more
Published on 24 Sep 2009 by Ralph Blumenau
Disappointing
I was very disappointed. The author chops and changes in his timescale and thread and makes little effort to build the narrative to a climax. Read more
Published on 30 Jun 2003 by Ear Ear
Beautifully Put Together
This is a beautifully put together book, combining a history of the first (real) railway with the tragic death of one of its main promoters. Read more
Published on 19 April 2003 by Peter Snell
The Death of a Reformer and the Birth of the Railways
Living in St Helens, not far from the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and remembering a childhood memory of a visit to the 150th Anniverary celebrations of the Rainhill Trials,... Read more
Published on 2 Jan 2003 by Mr K S Heywood
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