Eleven Minutes Late
A Train Journey to the Soul of Britain
by Mathew Engel
Overview
From the Publisher
Britain gave railways to the world, yet its own network is the dearest (definitely) and the worst (probably) in Western Europe. Trains are deeply embedded in the national psyche and folklore—yet it is considered uncool to care about them. For Matthew Engel the railway system is the ultimate expression of Britishness. It represents all the nation's ingenuity, incompetence, nostalgia, corruption, humor, capacity for suffering, and even sexual repression. To uncover its mysteries, Engel has traveled the system from Penzance to Thurso, exploring its history and talking to people from politicians to platform staff. Along the way Engel finds the most charmingly bizarre train in Britain, the most beautiful branch line, the rudest railway man, and—after a quest lasting decades—an individual pot of strawberry jam.
Eleven Minutes Late is both a polemic and a paean, and it is also very funny.
My thoughts
Being American, and thus knowing next to nothing about rail travel (oh, come on, you know it's true!), I downloaded this book on my Kindle and set about to see what train travel is like. The first thing I discovered is that some people are serious train lovers. It's not an interest or a hobby, it's an obsession! I can relate to these folks; perhaps not with a love of trains, but with any number of other loves I have. I felt a kindred spirit.
The next thing I discovered is that not only did I know nothing about rail travel, I had no inkling, not even the tiniest bit, about how important rail is, how controversial it is, how efficient/inefficient it is, how much government is involved in it, or what role it has played in history! Where have I been all my life?
I loved this book, not only for the train travel aspect but for the history as well. I enjoyed it so much that I went from this book to its equivalent in the US, Waiting on a Train. And yes, I enjoyed it equally as much!
Favorite Passage
Fowler, manwhile, set to work, without much encouragement, on a prototype Thatcherite scheme to build the Channel Tunnel using private capital. 'My stroke of luck was that Mrs Thatcher had this meeting with President Mitterrand of France,' he recalled, 'and the list of things they were likely to agree on was very short. But there had to be a final communique. Then she had this brilliant idea: "Fowler's been banging on about the Channel Tunnel!" So it was decided to underline the importance of it. that made it a completely different project. it wasn't Transport banging on about it, it was No. 10.' Luckily, perhaps, no one had mentioned to her that it could have been a road tunnel instead.
