In his "thinking traveler's tour," David St John Thomas journeys by rail and "Little Car" around Britain, exploring the fascinating and diverse character of contemporary Britain. He reflects on the nation, what makes its culture unique, and how the British people have changed, not always for the worse, over the 50-odd years he has known them as an author and a publisher. Taking in places as various as beaches, mountain moors, industrial and early Christian sites, great hotels, art galleries, canals, and cycle-ways, this narrative surprises, amuses, and engages, as well as offers a treasure trove of facts, anecdotes, and new perspectives on this extraordinary nation. Originally published in the U.K. in 2004, this is the first U.S. release of this treasure trove.

Journey Through Britain: Landscape, People and Books

Travel

Thomas, David St. John

Europe

Frances Lincoln

Remote Britain relishes the ever-changing landscapes of Britain and the people who grow out of them  plus the constant surprises. As in his acclaimed Journey Through Britain, David St John Thomas finds remains of railways and even active steam trains in the most unlikely of places, stays in hotels to fall in love with or to hate, and is never short of people who express their own views, as he does colorfully himself in chapters such as "In the Footsteps of the Queen Mother." This thinking traveler's tour of some of Britain's most out-of-the-way places throws up many common themes: small but contented populations, the sea as the historic highway. Remote Britain brings readers to corners of the nation that they’ve never seen before.

Remote Britain

David St John Thomas is Britain's one-time bestselling railway author, who built a formidable publishing empire first based mainly on railways. In Farewell to Trains, he summarizes his lifetime's passion. Personal reminiscences and evocative descriptions of railway life are interspersed with extracts from over 65 years of the author's railway writings, and illustrated throughout with archive photography. In this poignant love letter, the author says farewell to the restaurant cars, the sleeping carriages, the non-stop expresses and the cheap excursion trains, the local stations bustling with the railway's peripheral trades and liveried staff, the semaphore and signal boxes, and of course the great steam engines.

Farewell to Trains: A Lifetime's Journey Along Britain's Changing Railways

Engineering & Transportation

Transportation

White Lion Publishing

The Trains We Loved

Arts & Photography

Whitehouse, Patrick

Hawkins, Philip

History & Criticism

David&Charles

Celebrating 150 years of the smallest of the companies formed in the Grouping era in the early 1920s, this book captures the heart of the Southern Railway. With its Golden Arrow Pullman service and its Through Night Ferry operations, the Southern had very special Continental associations, while its achievements in World War II - including its part in the evacuation from Dunkirk - are legendary. It also presided over the world's largest suburban electrification. This book is an exploration of everything that made this railway special.

Sr 150: A Century and a Half of the Southern Railway

<p>This is the remarkable tale of 150 years of the London Midland &amp; Scottish Railway. Rich with detail and full of evocative images, this book recounts the history of this great railway using vivid personal accounts. Created in 1923, the LMS railway built some of the world's finest locomotives and its passenger coaches set new standards, while there was romance even in the everyday business of carrying prodigious quantities of coal and serving isolated hilltop communities.</p>

Lms 150: The London Midland and Scottish Railway a Century and a Half of Progress

The great days of the country railway

<p>Unique in its coverage, evocative and beautifully illustrated, this celebration of the British country lines in their heyday captures the total experience of railway life--the sights, the sounds, the smells, the very essence of the steam age. There is authoritative coverage of every aspect of country railways, from the stations to the engines, from passengers to the men who operated the trains, the bustle of activity, and the long, lazy summer days. Throughout are a wealth of anecdotes and quotations, cameo studies and superb illustrations.</p>

The Great Days of the Country Railway

The railway at the heart of Britain, carrying the nation's coal and transporting produce from the vast East Anglian farmlands, the LNER was a workhorse. It also held the unbeaten world steam speed record, and ran the Jazz suburban services - contrasts which are explored in this history of 150 glorious years. The LNER comes across as an enormous and often struggling business, but a very human affair. Its varied role touched the lives of many, and first-hand recounts of the railway bring its history to life. From Scottish ports to Lowestoft in the east, there were many faces to the LNER and management encouraged devolution like no other rail company of its time. This book contains many stirring stories of the days when the vast majority of its passengers and most its staff never dreamt of getting to know other than their small corners of the system, and when boarding the "Flying Scotsman" was the ultimate in adventure.

Lner 150: The London and North Eastern Railway a Century and a Half of Progress

Non-fiction: a guide to writing and publishing

Summer Saturdays in the West

David and Charles

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Books by Thomas, David St. John