Benedict Le Vay's grandfather was an Inspector of Railways in India during the British Raj. His mother spent her childhood on their private railway carriage touring india. And now Le Vay an interest in railways seems in their DNA has written a book titled britain from the rails. He talks about it all to Alison Gibson
Benedict Le Vay's grandfather was an Inspector of Railways in India during the British Raj. His mother spent her childhood on their private railway carriage touring india. And now Le Vay an interest in railways seems in their DNA has written a book titled britain from the rails. He talks about it all to Alison Gibson
Over lunch in Kensington with the author of a new guide to Britain's railways, I learn two things. The first is that if you want to publish a travel book, it helps to be a celebrity. "When I suggested my first book, publishers told me it was a good idea, if only it could be written by someone famous," Benedict le Vay said. Fortunately he found a publisher who disagreed. 
The second thing I learn is how to serve risotto. The waiter comes to our table carrying an enormous round of parmesan cheese, with the risotto in a well in the centre of it. He takes a spoon and scoops out the risotto on to a plate, adding scrapings of parmesan as he does so. I have never had lunch served out of cheese before.
Le Vay's book, Britain from the Rails, is rather like my lunch experience. It is full of risotto moments, unexpected asides that make you raise your eyebrows. It is this that elevates the book from travel guide to rattling good read, and not just for rail enthusiasts.
That I am reading this book at all is pure accident. I have no special interest in railways. I contacted le Vay about another book, and by coincidence he had just published this one. Then I found out that his interest in railways originated in India, and as I was writing for an Indian paper, I decided this was fate. I was meant to review this book. 
His grandfather, Major Frederick Cole, was Inspector of Railways in India from about 1915 to 1930. His mother Marjorie was born in India in 1913 and spent much of her childhood living aboard her father's private railway carriage as it rolled around India with her mother Hilda and two live-in servants. "They would hook it up to the Bombay Mail or whatever and criss-cross the country," le Vay says. "Of course it didn't work where you had a break of gauge."
That problem gave rise to a game that the family played when he was growing up in South London. "All the children and any neighbours crammed on to one sofa," he says. "At the blow of a whistle everybody rushed to get a place on the other sofa. The game was called I think Raipur Junction."
He recently discovered that Victorian children played the same game but called it Gloucester after the station in England where different gauges met.
India pervaded his childhood in other ways too. "We grew up with Indian silver, Indian phrases, and dal and pakoras for Saturday lunch long before Britain adopted Indian food as a national favourite," he says. "There was a feeling of a connection to that distant land which had been cut. Not that my grandparents or parents were against Independence."
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Le Vay visited India in the 1980s. "I absolutely loved it," he says. "I travelled many of the routes my grandparents had used. One of the best bits was the Darjeeling railway up into the Himalayas, which I compare in my book to the Ffestiniog in North Wales. Both are amazing survivors, have ancient steam, have a spiral to gain height, and endure more rain than is reasonable."
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Le Vay's mother Marjorie in India when she was a little girl (1920) |
Before I even opened Britain from the Rails, the cover stirred up memories. Trains featured strongly in my childhood. I went to school by train. I often crossed the mid-Wales from the coast to England to visit relatives.
The route included Barmouth bridge, with its stunning estuary views, and went inland through the hills. It was "real" train travel, wild and romantic. You could open windows then, smell mountain grass, heather and gorse, and hear the clickety-clack.
These days train travel is usually about how fast you can get to the other end. This book is a reminder that it is still possible to do it for pleasure. It is as much about Britain and people as it is about railways and is so entertaining that I even read the sections on signals, rail tracks and station clocks. Nearly every page is enlivened with photographs, drawings, cartoons and maps.
Scenic journeys are awarded stars. The only one to gain five stars for being "a simply staggering life-changing cosmic experience" is the West Highland Line in Scotland from Glasgow to Mallaig.
The book also covers superlatives, such as the worst and the oddest accidents, and the greatest engineering feats. I now know that Waterloo is Britain's biggest and busiest station, and that Scarborough station has the world's longest platform seat for 100 people. The human sacrifice involved in constructing the railways is also noted. During the building of the Forth Bridge alone, 71 workers died.
There is a chapter on fares and how to get a good deal. That it is ten pages long just goes to show why train fares, with their numerous conditions and exclusions, have long been the butt of jokes. As le Vay puts it, you may be unable to get a refund "unless you are wearing purple pyjamas and are accompanied by all eight great-grandparents".
Essentially, buying tickets in advance pays off hugely, you must reserve a seat on long distances or you will find yourself standing and the difference between fares can be more than u00a3100 so it's worth doing your homework. A BritRail pass makes sense for overseas visitors who plan to do a lot of train travel, but it must be booked from abroad.
Among my favourite "risotto" moments is the information that the town of Beccles on the East Suffolk Line is the "dwile-flonking capital of the world". A strange sport involving hitting each other with beer-soaked floor mops.
I have also learnt that there was once a London Necropolis Railway adjoining Waterloo that carried coffins and mourners to the vast Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey from 1854 until the Second World War. The station was bombed in the Second World War but both a book and a novel have since been published about the line.
Railway companies were known by initials that had satirical as well as official meanings. So the GWR (Great Western Railway) was God's Wonderful Railway or Goes When Ready, the LNER (London & North Eastern Railway) was the Late & Never Early Railway. And the GC (Great Central) was Gone Completely.
The charm of the countryside is evoked in names such as the Watercress Line and the Tarka Line in Devon, so called after the book Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson.
And finally, a story with a happy ending. In 1885, a jilted young woman jumped off the 76m-high Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. Her skirts acted as a parachute, she landed in soft mud and survived. She married another man and lived into her 80s.
Britain from the Rails by Benedict le Vay published by Bradt Travel Guides at u00a317.99
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