Platform Souls : The Trainspotter As 21st-Century Hero by Nicholas Whittaker read online DJV, PDF, FB2
9781848319905 English 1848319908 Nicholas Whittaker's much-loved classic recollects the long sunny days of his childhood when, notepad in hand, jam sandwiches in the duffel bag, he happily spent his time jotting down train numbers during the Indian summer of steam and the heyday of diesel.Whittaker returns to his roots in this updated edition, casting a sceptical eye over recent developments, catching up with old acquaintances and considering the toll that half a century of ridicule and a couple of decades of privatisation have wrought upon his beloved pastime.As Andrew Martin notes in his Foreword, this is 'one of the best books ever written about rail enthusiasm'. Equally it is a poetically written memoir of growing up in a more innocent age, a hymn to British eccentricity and to the virtues of observing the world around you: 'Spotters - of trains, planes, buses or birds - are a last redoubt for something rapidly vanishing from our lives: looking outward, seeing, observing. People notice things less and less these days, while watching things more and more.'Praise for the first edition:'An elegy: for the steam trains already vanishing when Whittaker's hobby began in 1964; for the short-lived diesel age which followed; for an era of near innocence.' Times Literary Supplement 'Whittaker writes with humour and considerable evocative power ... For anyone who will admit to having a childhood brush with this now derided hobby, Platform Souls brings it all rushing back.' Independent'Destined to become the Fever Pitch of the sidings and embankments' Publishing News, Nicholas Whittaker's much-loved cult classic, first published in 1995, recollects the long sunny days of his childhood when, notepad in hand, jam sandwiches in the rucksack, he happily spent his time jotting down train numbers during the Indian summer of steam and the heyday of diesel.Twenty years on, Whittaker returns to his roots in this updated, commemorative edition. He casts a sceptical eye over the new glass-roofed Birmingham New Street, catches up with old acquaintances at Clapham Junction, and considers the toll that half a century of ridicule and a couple of decades of privatisation have wrought upon his beloved pastime.Praise for the first edition:'An elegy: for the steam trains already vanishing when Whittaker's hobby began in 1964; for the short-lived diesel age which followed; for an era of near innocence.' Times Literary Supplement 'Whittaker writes with humour and considerable evocative power ... For anyone who will admit to having a childhood brush with this now derided hobby, Platform Souls brings it all rushing back.' Independent, The sight of Britannia 70004 roaring through Burton-on-Trent one summer afternoon in the mid-sixties would have provided a suitable baptism for any youngster on his first trainspotting jaunt. For Nicholas Whittaker it was the beginning of a thirty-year love affair with the railways. Platform Souls is his personal odyssey through the changing world of this most English of pursuits. 'An elegy: for the steam trains already vanishing when Whittaker's hobby began in 1964; for the short-lived diesel age which followed; for an era of near innocence . . . This theme is neatly handled, as is the appeal to the sheer romance of railways, the poetry of trains' TLS
9781848319905 English 1848319908 Nicholas Whittaker's much-loved classic recollects the long sunny days of his childhood when, notepad in hand, jam sandwiches in the duffel bag, he happily spent his time jotting down train numbers during the Indian summer of steam and the heyday of diesel.Whittaker returns to his roots in this updated edition, casting a sceptical eye over recent developments, catching up with old acquaintances and considering the toll that half a century of ridicule and a couple of decades of privatisation have wrought upon his beloved pastime.As Andrew Martin notes in his Foreword, this is 'one of the best books ever written about rail enthusiasm'. Equally it is a poetically written memoir of growing up in a more innocent age, a hymn to British eccentricity and to the virtues of observing the world around you: 'Spotters - of trains, planes, buses or birds - are a last redoubt for something rapidly vanishing from our lives: looking outward, seeing, observing. People notice things less and less these days, while watching things more and more.'Praise for the first edition:'An elegy: for the steam trains already vanishing when Whittaker's hobby began in 1964; for the short-lived diesel age which followed; for an era of near innocence.' Times Literary Supplement 'Whittaker writes with humour and considerable evocative power ... For anyone who will admit to having a childhood brush with this now derided hobby, Platform Souls brings it all rushing back.' Independent'Destined to become the Fever Pitch of the sidings and embankments' Publishing News, Nicholas Whittaker's much-loved cult classic, first published in 1995, recollects the long sunny days of his childhood when, notepad in hand, jam sandwiches in the rucksack, he happily spent his time jotting down train numbers during the Indian summer of steam and the heyday of diesel.Twenty years on, Whittaker returns to his roots in this updated, commemorative edition. He casts a sceptical eye over the new glass-roofed Birmingham New Street, catches up with old acquaintances at Clapham Junction, and considers the toll that half a century of ridicule and a couple of decades of privatisation have wrought upon his beloved pastime.Praise for the first edition:'An elegy: for the steam trains already vanishing when Whittaker's hobby began in 1964; for the short-lived diesel age which followed; for an era of near innocence.' Times Literary Supplement 'Whittaker writes with humour and considerable evocative power ... For anyone who will admit to having a childhood brush with this now derided hobby, Platform Souls brings it all rushing back.' Independent, The sight of Britannia 70004 roaring through Burton-on-Trent one summer afternoon in the mid-sixties would have provided a suitable baptism for any youngster on his first trainspotting jaunt. For Nicholas Whittaker it was the beginning of a thirty-year love affair with the railways. Platform Souls is his personal odyssey through the changing world of this most English of pursuits. 'An elegy: for the steam trains already vanishing when Whittaker's hobby began in 1964; for the short-lived diesel age which followed; for an era of near innocence . . . This theme is neatly handled, as is the appeal to the sheer romance of railways, the poetry of trains' TLS