Overview

THE TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Vividly conjures a lost age' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Hugely entertaining' EVENING STANDARD 'A feast of anecdotage' SUNDAY TIMES Throughout the twentieth century, the seaside service posters of Britain's railways promised fresh air and frivolity to millions of urban dwellers with the phrase: 'To the sea by train'. A staple of modern British life, the seaside getaway was intertwined with the train, in whose compartments holidaymakers were shunted from smog-choked cities to sandy coves.With his signature wit and anecdotal style, Andrew Martin captures an era defined by its railways: from the development of Brighton and Scarborough into pleasure resorts, and the introduction of bank holidays and two-day weekends, to the advent of cheap flights and the British coast's subsequent decline. Humorous and evocative, To the Sea by Train takes a charming tour through Britain's most beloved pastime. 'A standalone classic' COUNTRY LIFE 'Infectious' SPECTATOR

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9781805221579

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Reviews

evocatively describes the long-bygone age of travelling by train to seaside resorts. You can almost smell the sea and ice cream as Martin wittily blends memoir and social history' * Observer * Martin's whimsical little book, a feast of anecdotage, represents a memorial to the past that was not always an idyll * Sunday Times * Vividly conjures a lost age * Financial Times * Hugely entertaining and informative ... The book, beautifully and amusingly written and prodigiously well-informed, is part travelogue and part history. It is the perfect book to accompany an old-fashioned railway excursion to the coast * Evening Standard * Charming and unashamedly trainspotterish ... To spread joy about what's left, [Martin] travels on lines to the coast that remain open, evoking his journeys in infectiously enthusiastic detail * Spectator * Martin... has a nudgingly humorous style, occasionally breaking out into the outright comedic, and a novelist's ear for dialogue. Facts are lightly applied, the quirkier the better. [His] account of travelling through Euston and Birmingham New Street and on to the Cambrian Coast Line to Pwllheli is a standalone classic of observational comedy - I couldn't stop laughing. * Country Life * Fascinating... There's a pleasant undercurrent of nostalgia in this clever book.... Martin has a journalistic eye * The Oldie * Praise for Andrew Martin: 'Andrew Martin is the railway wizard * Telegraph * Andrew Martin has cornered the train market. He is the Bard of the Buffer, the Balladeer of the Blue Train, the Laureate of Lost Property ... the best sort of travel-writer: inquisitive, knowledgeable, lively, congenial * Mail on Sunday * Martin is entertaining company, alive to the history of his route ... Leaves you with renewed confidence that trains can still be the most civilised way to travel * Financial Times *

Author Information

Andrew Martin is a rail expert and author. His previous titles include Underground, Overground, Night Trains, Belles & Whistles, Steam Trains Today and Train Teasers. He is also the author of Seats of London, a field guide to Transport for London's iconic moquette patterns.

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