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  Eleven Minutes Late: A Train Journey to the Soul of Britain (Hardback) By (author) Matthew Engel

  

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  Short Description for Eleven Minutes LatePart polemic part paean, this book shows how the railways in Britain represent all the nation's ingenuity, incompetence, nostalgia, corruption, humor, capacity for suffering and even sexual repression.
  Full description

  • Publisher: Pan Macmillan
  • Published: 01 May 2009
  • Format: Hardback 240 pages
  • See: Full bibliographic data
  • Categories: Social & Cultural History | Trains & Railways | Travel Writing
  • ISBN 13: 9780230708983 ISBN 10: 0230708986
  • Sales rank: 7,732

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Full description for Eleven Minutes Late

• 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 ('half-John Betjeman, half-Victor Meldrew') 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.