Author name: Michael Williams

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 screwed up”. However, there are plenty of revelations still to be made by those prepared […]

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. One concerns Verney Junction, formerly the furthest outpost of the Metropolitan Railway. Nominally part of

‘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 in the Royal Horse Artillery. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Steaming-Victory-How-Britains-Railways/dp/0099557673/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=  

  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 the British for trains and train travel today owes much to to this inspired publisher,

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 excursions into the lost delights of Britain’s railways”, Williams explores old routes and services with

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 me he loved the trains of East Anglia as a boy near where he lived

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 ‘Book of the Month’ in the July issue. Here are some of the quotes from

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 main line in England http://bit.ly/1HlzBnc And so far, The Trains Now Departed has received all

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 – he in ‘Railways Pictorial References’, with his book The Golden Age of Railway Posters http://amzn.to/1FZWPe4 and

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 tube station would scarcely notice it these days. Yet behind an anonymous façade at the

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 (alongside my fellow local and and former colleague Andrew Marr) http://amzn.to/1xKrjzz http://bit.ly/1r1FrBy Home What Amazon

JUST three weeks ago, Penguin Random House published my latest book The Trains Now Departed: Sixteen Excursions into Lost Delights of Britain’s Railways. There’s been a lovely response from the national media, including extracts published by the ‘Daily Telegraph’, the ‘Independent’ and ‘i’ newspapers – and I’ve done many interviews on the BBC. And as

I never thought my writing about railways would be compared to a novel – let alone magical realism. But here’s a nice spread based on my new book The Trains Now Departed from the ‘Western Morning News’ newspaper. See the Lynton & Barnstaple article on the right

I was struck, travelling from Liverpool Street today into Essex how much of our railway heritage is still falling into ruin. My picture here is of the old Burnham on Crouch station on the line to Southminster, used by London commuters every day. I didn’t write about it in my chapter on lost heritage in

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? Well, my latest book is currently #No 1 Bestseller on amazon.co.uk in Kindle format. I

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 for railway heritage extends round the world…

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

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 of hard work and intense pleasure. Publication week is a moment of great trepidation for

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 7. I didn’t choose the day – the choice was made by my publishers Penguin

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 us has been heightened recently by the renaissance of railway enthusiasm. Gone are the days

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 of the sacrifice of the people who kept the railways running in wartime… ‘CERTAINLY, after

  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 new book ‘The Trains Now Departed: Sixteen Excursions into the Lost Delights of Britain’s Railways’.

  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 babies have their own special smell – and so do newly printed books. Especially if