© 2022 Michael Wenn Williams. Cookie Policy.
My article on the joys of transpottinging fro the latest edition of Steam Tube; I HAVE a confession to make. It’s shaming, embarrassing and something no grown man wants the world to know about him. In the galaxy of public […]
A WONDERFUL canter through the Surrey Hills last night behind the Flying Scotsman, nattering over a five course dinner in the Pullman car with Steam Dreams owner Marcus Robertson. Even though I have travelled scores of times behind this locomotive, […]
“I HAVE seldom heard a train go by and not wished I was on it,” said the travel writer Paul Theroux famously, and it seems that more of us than ever concur with him. Trains are the most agreeable, […]
HONOURED, as a mere scribe, to have been invited to give a talk tonight in the hallowed Institution of Civil Engineers at Westminster, with the shades of Stephenson, Brunel and Telford looking on. Think the audience enjoyed it – I […]
DELIGHTED to have been invited today by the great, great, great niece of Edwin Horne – architect of the charming Camden Road station on the North London Railway –to the unveiling of a plaque in his honour. (I had written […]
IT WAS at the heart of my professional life. The closure of The Independent print edition today does not just leave an aching gap for me – I worked there as a senior editor for nearly 14 years. But it […]
I’m delighted to have been appointed a judge for this year’s Regional Press Awards. At a time when the press is under pressure as never before, it’s always a delight to read the entries for these awards – always full […]
TRAGIC news this week that the Independent and Independent on Sunday are to stop printing. I spent 14 years working for both – first as executive editor of the Indy, and then as deputy editor of the Sindy. The closures […]
A READER of ‘The Trains Now Departed’ – Keith Baker – has sent me the following delightful memoir of Laurie Earl – famous driver of the crack Euston to Scotland trains: ‘I have recently read this book, and found it […]
IF you get a chance, catch up with my episode of ‘Combat Trains’ on the H2 History Channel tonight. There will undoubtedly be frequent repeats – it shows on Virgin, Sky and BT .
How Britain’s railways won the war. I’m helping narrate the History Channel series Combat Trains this Thursday January 28 at 8.30pm talking about the vital role of the railways on the Home Front. I’d be delighted if you’d join me […]
From the group’s latest Winter Bulletin The 2015 AGM This year’s AGM was held in the Georgian Room in Kendal Town Hall. Filled with an appreciative audience it showed that you don’t have to offer crisis and bad news […]
IT WAS the war wound that prevented me getting on with my grandfather. Too late to regret it now but perhaps, a century after he received the blow that crippled him, I can at least attempt to piece together the events […]
GREAT to see the mighty Flying Scotsman back on the rails today after her many tribulations. Let’s hope that the skilled engineers appointed by the National Railway Museum have exorcised what many have long regarded as the “Curse of the […]
I RECEIVED this letter from a reader of ‘The Trains Now Departed’ at the New Year. It expresses such a lovely sentiment, I thoughtI would share it: Dear Mr Williams, I have just finished reading “The Trains Now Departed” and […]
WITH just a week to go to Christmas, my latest book is No. 2 in the Amazon charts
“A delight it proves to be: 16 compellingly fascinating accounts… together with a delightfully surprising cast of characters, strange tales and maybe even a ghost or two. Stir in the author’s humour and wit, and it makes for a jolly […]
Delighted that my book ‘The Trains Now Departed’ has just been named as one of the ‘Books of the Year’ in the influential ‘Tablet’ magazine http://amzn.to/1xKrjzz
By Michael Williams (From the Sunday Telegraph, December 6 2015) It’s hell out there on the Ypres frontline. Crowds file off tourist buses marked Passchendaele and Tyne Cot, shops are touting maps, medals and memorabilia and the Flanders Fields museum […]
WATCH me in a new History Channel series starting this week about railways and warfare, called Combat Trains. It’s on Sky and Virgin among other channels. I’ve done some thrilling stuff on World War II, based on my book ‘Steaming […]
The inside story of the making of David Lean’s masterpiece, 70 years old this month, from Chapter 14 of ‘Steaming to Victory’ “YOU KNOW– David Lean chose me personally for my part in Brief Encounter. He said, “That’s the girl […]
NICE to see my published views on the value of reopening old rail routes quoted in this new report from the influential Bow Group http://www.bowgroup.org/policy/revive-britains-railways-improve-capacity-says-bow-group
Listen to me here: http://ab.co/1KMRNJH http://ab.co/1KMRNJH
WHAT is the best railway carriage view in the world? I was asked this weekend to write up my choice for Telegraph Travel. Spoilt for choice, here’s my selection. The UK really does have some special railway views. Aside from […]
MY ARTICLE from today’s Daily Mail: IT WAS known as God’s Wonderful Railway – and with good reason. In its glory days, until the drab hand of nationalisation fell on it in 1948, the old Great Western Railway was the […]
SURELY the railways were better in the good old days. Weren’t they? All the talk about rail renationalisation under new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn somehow implies it was better in the past when British Rail was in charge. I’ve certainly […]
How lovely. The story from the Independent on Sunday of my recent journey through the Scottish Borders – travelling along the new Borders Railway. http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/uk/scottish-borders-railway-brings-a-historic-region-back-into-focus-10499752.html
NOT OFTEN in a lifetime do you get ahead of the Queen! But as Her Majesty opens Scotland’s new Borders Railway today – the longest domestic main line to be built in Britain for more than a century – I […]
THIS week I’m privileged to be among the passengers on Britain’s first new domestic main line for a century – rolling through the delightful scenery of the Scottish Borders. I’ve written the story of the line in my new book […]
THE CARRIAGES are shabby and have seen better days – and the service is sparse, with just five trains each way over its 75-mile length. Some of the stations have primitive facilities, with barely enough shelter to shield passengers […]
At last achieved my ambition of getting access to the spooky Down Street station on the Piccadilly Line, which I wrote about in my book Steaming to Victory. Here are some of my pix. Full of memories of Churchill – […]
A LOVELY evening yesterday talking to local book enthusiasts in Camden about my new title The Trains Now Departed – and the prospects for HS2. It was a fun evening – and thanks to all who came along. Thanks, too, […]
A SUPER review of ‘The Trains Now Departed’ by Russ Rollings in the National Railway Museum Review. He writes: The fascinating stories are very readable, peppered with anecdotes and obscure facts. As with Michael Williams’ previous book Steaming to Victory, […]
WHY we need to save the statue of Sir Nigel Gresley and his Mallard at King’s Cross station. My quote in this week’s Camden New Journal @gresleyduck
I’D BE VERY pleased to see you at my talk at the Owl Bookshop – one of London’s most charming independent bookshops – on ‘The Delights of Britain’s Railways’, based on my bestselling new book ‘The Trains Now Departed: Sixteen […]
THE global financial crisis was not just a failure of banking but of journalism, too – with the media in the dock for failing to warn an unsuspecting public of impending disaster. As a news editor might put it, “we […]
A lovely review of The Trains Now Departed by Andrew Martin, famous for his Jim Stringer detective novels. He writes: “In The Trains Now Departed Williams celebrates ‘the best of what is gone from our railways’ in 16 vivid, highly readable chapters. […]
‘Fascinating’ – another nice mention of The Trains Now Departed in the latest edition of ‘Choice’ magazine.
VERY EXCITED to be travelling tomorrow by train to the battle sites of WW1 to write a piece for the Daily Telegraph. This is a very personal journey for me, since my grandfather, Bertie Wenn, was injured at Passchendaele serving […]
SO SORRY to hear of the death of Ian Allan, the patron saint of trainspotting, who fired up the imagination of a generation of schoolboys, with his ABCs of British Locomotives (and many other subjects). The huge passion of […]
ANOTHER nice review of The Trains Now Departed, this time in The Tablet – the international Catholic weekly – which says, in reviewing three new books about railways: ‘The best of the three is The Trains Now Departed. Subtitled “sixteen […]
Earlier this year, after the chaos over Network Rail engineering failure at Kings Cross I wrote in the Daily Mail about how the strategy was wrong http://dailym.ai/1xsBmZ9 Not surprising with latest news from government that there is to be a review!
Here’s my interview in the South China Morning Post about my life on the line… http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1823397/why-train-travel-sexy-again-according-writer-michael
A smashing letter from Radio 1 DJ Andy Peebles, who bought The Trains Now Departed: Sixteen Excursions into the Lost Delights of Britain’s Railways after hearing me talk about it on the Judy Spiers show on BBC radio. He tells […]
A GLOWING review by leading railway writer Andrew Roden of my new book ‘The Trains Now Departed: Sixteen Excursions into the Lost Delights of Britain’s Railways’ in ‘Steam World’ – Britain’s best-selling historical railway magazine – which has made it […]
ANOTHER nice newspaper review of The Trains Now Departed – this time from the Westmorland Gazette. It was in this beautiful part of the north that I walked over the old tracks of the Stainmore Railway – once the highest […]
BY AN accident of geography, I happen to be a near neighbour in London of Michael Palin – a great railway enthusiast and charming man. And, by another coincidence, both he and I have No 1. bestsellers on Amazon – […]
How tragic that so much of London’s wonderful railway heritage has been lost. Here’s my article this week for the ILovePrimrose Hill website http://bit.ly/1IC6hrs THE hordes of people who cross the Bridge Approach from Primrose Hill to Chalk Farm […]
Delighted to see that The Trains Now Departed is still ranked tops in its category on Amazon – with all five-star reviews. And it’s got a lovely display in our local bookshops in north London. Here’s the Primrose Hill Bookshop […]
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