© 2021 Michael Wenn Williams. Cookie Policy.
I sometimes worry about e-readers. Are they replacing books? Will books go the same way as old branch lines? What about the sensuous feel of a book, with its lovely illustrations and all the tactile qualities that go with it? […]
Just returned from Singapore and Hong Kong, where I gave a series of talks on the Greatest Train Journeys of the World, as well as signing copies of my newest book, The Trains Now Departed. It’s marvellous how the fondness […]
Three of my books The Trains Now Departed, Steaming to Victory and On the Slow Train Again all ranked in Amazon Top 25 in Railway History today – including #No 1 Bestseller. Keeps an author happy… http://amzn.to/1s9OcaN
“Guides you through a lost world – The nostalgia of tomorrow.” A lovely review of my book from Philip Haigh, senior commentator in the current issue of Rail magazine – Britain’s best-selling modern railways publication:
My article in the Daily Telegraph based on my chapter on the great days of British express trains from my new book The Trains Now Departed: Sixteen Excursions into the Lost Delights of Britain’s Railways – just published http://bit.ly/1ET6vGT
Here’s my article in today’s Independent and ‘i’ newspapers based on a chapter from my new book the Trains Now Departed, published tomorrow, May 7 http://ind.pn/1EX9MZe
IT’S finally publication week for my new book The Trains Now Departed, out on Thursday May 7 – when the whistle blows for departure on a project close to my heart that has lasted for three years – a mixture […]
IT’S sometimes hard to feel sympathetic to politicians, but I’m sharing some of their jitters this week since my newest book, The Trains Now Departed: Sixteeen Excursions into the Lost Delights of Britain’s Railways, is published on General Election day, May […]
THE Yorkshire Post have run a nice piece on my chapter on ‘ghost trains’ in my new book The Trains Now Departed: Sixteen Journeys into The Lost Delights of Britain’s Railways – to be published on May 7. The picture […]
IS RAILWAY enthusiasm becoming respectable at last? Here’s an extract from the introduction to my new book The Trains Now Departed, out on May 7: ‘AND why not, indeed? This sense of what the railways of the past signify to […]
With the 70th anniversary of VE Day coming up on May 8, I’m thinking of the heroes and heroines of the Home Front who I interviewed for my recent book Steaming to Victory. Here’s what I wrote in the book […]
WITH my new book, The Trains Now Departed out in less than three weeks, it’s good to see that my two best-selling original books celebrating the joy of railway travel – On the Slow Train and On the Slow Train […]
WHAT are the best train journeys in Britain? I’ve been invited to Singapore and Hong Kong next month to give some talks in both cities about ‘The Best of British Rail Travel’ to coincide with the publication on my […]
JUST received the first copy of my new book ‘The Trains Now Departed’ fresh off the press, ready for publication on May 7. How lovely to have this crisply printed hardback with its lovely cover in my hands. Newborn […]
I’ve been invited to Singapore and Hong Kong next month to give some talks in both cities about ‘The Best of British Rail Travel’ to coincide with the publication on my new book ‘The Trains Now Departed: Sixteen Excursions into […]
I’ve been invited by the tourist authorities in Hong Kong and Singapore next month to give some talks about the’ Best of British and World Railway Travel’. So what is the ultimate railway journey of dreams in the UK. Not […]
Here’s what I wrote in yesterday’s ‘Independent’ and ‘i’ newspapers: IT’S NOW as much part of the traditional British Easter as egg-rolling, simnel cake and chocolate bunnies. This Good Friday morning the nation will wake up to find whole swathes […]
CATCHING a train at Carlisle station to travel over the Settle and Carlisle line yesterday, it was nice, though somewhat eerie, to find my own words staring at me from the Northern Rail timetable…
WHAT are the ghost trains that wend their spooky way around the rail network? And how about the ‘ghosties’ – the railway enthusiasts who travel on them? I spoke about this on BBC Local Radio this morning, describing my travels […]
IN MY new book The Trains Now Departed: sixteen excursions into the lost delights of Britain’s railways, I explore some of the ways in which the experience of railway travel in Britain was often better than it is now. Here’s a […]
MANY HAVE asked me about the lovely image on the cover of of my new book The Trains Now Departed. It is of the Headstone Viaduct, built by the Midland Railway over the River Wye in the Peak district of Derbyshire, on […]
For the past two years I’ve been on an odyssey to determine the best and worst of our national railway system. The results will be published in my new book The Trains Now Departed, out from Penguin Random House on […]
A turning point in the history of the railways today as Virgin takes over the East Coast main line. No more rivalry between King’s Cross and Euston almost since the railways were invented. Will history decide this to be a […]
One of the nicest moments in an author’s life is the delicious period between the long task of writing a book and the moment it is published. With the text edited and proof-read, the final updates made and just the […]
I was honoured this weekend to have my memories and pictures included in an exhibition featuring Winston Churchill’s restored funeral train at the National Railway Museum. Here’s an article I wrote for the Daily Mail, which includes some of the […]
Very excited to be at the proof stage of of my new book The Trains Now Departed: Sixteen journeys into the lost delights of Britain’s railways. It’s published by Preface on May 7 2015, with some super line illustrations by […]
My day with Winston Churchill – 50 years on. The National Railway Museum in York have put me and my schoolboy memories in a new exhibition about Churchill’s final journey, opening this Friday, January 30. Here’s one of the images […]
Amid the row over inaccuracies in the TV series Broadchurch, the movies don’t do it much better. I’ve just seen Testament of Youth, the autobiographical account of a group of friends in the run-up to and during World War One. […]
Here’s me with Michael as we take the train from Knottingley to Goole in Yorkshire. Why is there only one train a day? And why does it continue to run when there is hardly ever anyone on it? All will […]
With the 50th anniversary of Churchill’s funeral being marked at the end of this month, there are many delightful stories about the war leader’s fondness for the railways – told in my most recent book Steaming to Victory. In particular, […]
By Michael Williams Distressed families lugging heavy suitcases, tired, bawling children shivering in the cold, confused elderly folk uncertain paralysed with panic. No, not a refugee exodus in some far-flung corner of the world, but the scenes at Finsbury Park […]
Just seen the proof of the smashing design of the jacket of my new book The Trains Now Departed: sixteen excursions into the lost delights of Britain’s railways, out from Preface Publishing on May 7 2015. Can anybody guess where […]
The wheels of academia turn slowly, so delighted to see this first major review of our book The Future of Quality News Journalism. Professor Leigh L. Wright says: ‘A book such as this collection allows professors and students to read […]
I’m off next week to help the National Railway Museum set up their new exhibition on Winston Churchill’s last journey. I’m contributing some memories from my book ‘ Steaming to Victory: How Britain’s railways won the war’
Do join me at the University of Central Lancashire School of Tourism for my talk on how the railways shaped our modern concept of time. And how the philosophy of time and the railways are inextricably entwined. Wednesday December 3 […]
I took this picture of ‘Royal Scot’ class locomotive No. 46115 ‘Scots Guardsman speeding through Kentish Town station in north London on a special train from St Pancras this Remembrance Sunday. How appropriate to see this wonderfully restored locomotive with […]
‘The Trains Now Departed’. Thrilled with title of my latest book to be published by @PenguinRandomUK on May 7 2015
My article in the Daily Mail, October 9 2014 THE crush is suffocating. All five of my senses are being bombarded, from the overpowering stench of my fellow commuter’s breath barely inches away (chicken balti was on the menu […]
See me talking about my research for Steaming to Victory on a super new DVD free with the new October issue of the Railway Magazine and filmed at the Great Central Railway.
On this week’s 75th anniversary of the start of WW2, let’s not forget the words of Winston Churchill, as victory neared, about the “grim determination, unwavering courage and constant resourcefulness of the railwaymen of all ranks” – without […]
© 2021 Michael Wenn Williams. Cookie Policy.
