Britain from the Rails: A Window Gazer's Guide (Bradt Travel Guide) |
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Author:
Benedict le Vay
By Bradt Travel Guides
Average Customer Rating: 
List Price: £17.99
Our Price: £34.95
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 author's reply, 2009-07-20
As the author, I spotted this criticism on the day I did ten interviews with BBC local radio stations about this book. In half of those interviews, the presenters mentioned unprompted how much they liked the look and feel of it - 'all those little illustrations, like a personal scrapbook' etc. 'Charming, like Wainwright's hand-drawn notebooks' said Radio Cumbria, referring to the great hill-walking author, which I take as high praise. Design and humour is a matter of taste, and on this occasion it didn't suit this one reader. That's a shame. But I have written several books which have unrelieved grey type running up one page and down the next and I know which most readers prefer. I'm enormously grateful to the publishers for having made such an effort to make this book visually appealing while cramming in nearly everything I wrote, and most people just love the book. So I'll give them five stars too!
There are people who can digest reams of material printed straight up and down like an old-fashioned telephone directory or railway timetable, and all credit to them, but they are in a tiny minority. With respect, I'd say most people - as I know from working in newspapers - much prefer and even demand a bit of display, interest, brightness, wit and, dare I say it, fun.
Britain from the Rails, 2010-05-31
Wonderful book - tells me all I wanted to know and has made me follow up the dream. Very comprehensive - even though the line I am on (King's Lynn) gets no more than a glancing mention.
the train passenger sees more, 2009-09-13
This is a fun book, contemporary, insightful, really useful, and well-informed, of the view from the train window. It's not great literature but the writer knows his Britain, his trains and their strengths and weakness, travels for fun with an open mind, knows where to sit, and sees Britain in some of its finest places. I know his 'top ten' of train rides, and he's right, but many of the others he describes have hidden or forgotten treasures. The only things to spoil your pleasure in this book are, those who are bent on destroying what you came to see, and the operating rail companies when they fail to live up to their potential. And who knows? Perhaps this book will show some of them what treasures they have!
Beautifully produced travelpaedia, 2009-07-29
I used to take a seven hour train journey twice each week through England's heartland, trundling slowly through landscape of which I knew little and changing trains three times in the process. If only I had had Ben Le Vay's book then! It is a perfect accompaniment to any train journey, and the ideal gift to those strange people who sit on trains staring out the window doing nothing, absorbed in their own imaginings. Here is the antidote to boring train journeys. Full of interesting bon mots, amusing cartoons, drawings, maps and photographs no one could fail to be delighted with this excellent publication. It is now permanently in my brief case, even for those short journeys on God's Wonderful Railway that take me over Brunel's amazing Maidenhead Bridge into the Metropolis, about which there is always something new to learn.
 Expectation better than product delivers, 2009-11-07
The overview of this book gives the impression that you will be delighted and inspired to use the book on your travels to see more than just what's out of the window.
It is useful to catagorise the "better" rail journeys to spend time traveling on - but that's about it.
The writings are a disjointed rambling for each journey with insufficient detail to add any great value.
I took the book on a week's rail travel with me - threw it away on day 3 - it did not deliver enough value to warrant carrying it in a ruck sack.
Shame - could have been great.
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 914
EAN: 9781841622774
ISBN: 184162277X
Label: Bradt Travel Guides
Manufacturer: Bradt Travel Guides
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: 2009-06-05
Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides
Studio: Bradt Travel Guides |
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